Alice in NightmaRe
by Alice Kim
Summary: When given the chance, will Alice return to the Abyss of a Wonderland that landed her into a mental aslyum seven years ago? It's no longer a childish game...it's a game determining her life, death, and possibly, sanity. AU  OMAKES ARE CRACK
1. Retrace 1

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

"Hello, Alice. My name is Dr. Raven, your new psychiatrist," a man in a suit entered her lonely hospital room.

Alice sat in her bed, staring into space, wearing a white nightdress. Her long, dark brown hair stood up in a crazed frenzy.

"How are you, Alice?" he asked, sitting next to her on a wooden stool.

Alice's purple eyes continued to stare at the blank, white wall in front of her.

"Do you feel better?"

Still no reply.

The psychiatrist could not help but sigh at the thought of how much work Alice might need. "I don't suppose you'll answer me, but…what's wrong, Alice?"

Her blank eyes widened at the question. She hoarsely whispered, "My parents…are dead."

Raven mentally cheered at the slight interaction of the six-year old. "Yes. What else is wrong, Alice?"

He partially hoped to get an easy answer such as, "I'm sad" or "I feel lonely." He most certainly did not expect "Something is broken."

At those words, a wave of fragmented memories crashed into her mind. Strange people talking to her. Strange people guiding her. Strange people playing different games with her.

"What is broken, Alice?" he quietly asked, immersed into understanding what was going on in her mind.

_A boy with messy white hair smiled at her, "It won't hurt to have a look-see~"_

"What is broken, Alice?" he repeated with more urgency as he watched the little girl strain her brain to remember forgotten memories.

_A porcelain doll with the same face as her…even the black hair, purple eyes…even the outfit was the same. It was held on strings by its wrists as though it were more of a puppet that a doll. There was a small crack on its cheek. Slowly, the crack expanded to its forehead…its chin…and the entire face. Its body began to crumble, little by little._

_"NO! I CAN'T LOSE! XERXES! XERXES, SAVE ME!"_

The doll shattered into bits.

"Me."

"What?" He strained to hear her tiny voice.

"Me. I broke. That's why…"

She had lost. She had lost the Alice Game. So she had lost him as well. Alice lost her best friend who went through the trouble of exploring her Wonderland by her side. Alice had lost Xerxes.

"…Say mister…"

"Yes?"

"If I lost the Alice Game, I would lose anything precious to me, no? So if I returned and killed everyone off…and win the Game…would Xerxes come back?"

"Xerxes?"

"Yes…my best friend who disappeared with me on the same day…and never returned…"

Raven looked at her, confused, "My dear…I've looked up this case. Never has there been an Xerxes involved."

"But…he gave me this before he left…surely you would know what the crest symbolizes?" Alice held up a small golden pocket watch with an elaborate, fancy crest on front.

"The old-fashioned, aristocratic family of Regnard? They never had a son named Xerxes, but had a child named Kevin, Alice," Raven replied, pushing his eyeglasses up.

"But there was never a child named Kevin born into this world! Kevin should not exist!" Alice's fingers trembled as she clasped the watch around her hand tightly.

"Neither was a child named Xerxes," Raven sighed and decided to force her into reality. "There has never been an existence with the name of Xerxes Regnard."

"But…what if his surname wasn't Regnard?"

_Break…?_

* * *

"Welcome, first years!" the banner in front of the middle school congratulated.

Alice ignored it and didn't sign her name on it with markers like the other students were doing. She made her way straight into the auditorium and plopped down in the middle row. She started to pick at her ugly uniform while she imagined burning it delightfully. Alice frowned, bored as ever.

"What if I caused some trouble…?" She stopped and sighed, "179 other days, Alice. 179 other days to cause trouble. Behave for the first week then throw those damn teachers off. You can do it…"

She turned her amethyst colored eyes to the ceiling and distracted herself, "Seven years in the asylum already and no one still believes you exist, Xerxes. You'd think they'd believe you once you appear to get your sanity back, but no, you were 'just a dream'." She leaned back on her chair as other students flooded into the auditorium.

"Gwah!" Alice felt feet tripping over her legs and a crash of chairs.

She sat up and stared at the kid who fell over her legs and knocked over a row of chairs.

"I'm sorry! Forgive me!" he cried as he rubbed the back of his blonde hair.

"Watch it," she frowned as he got up, dusted himself, and began to re-arrange the chairs, "You're such a klutz."

"I know…" he sighed. The boy suddenly turned his emerald eyes at her and smiled, "I'm Hayan-Touki!"

"…Hayan…Touki…?" Alice snorted.

"Well, yes, that's my given name…but I have a more normal sounding name if you want!" He finished and sat next to her with a cheery atmosphere, in total contrast to Alice's.

"I don't care."

"I'm also known as Oz! What's your name?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" She complained.

"It's punishment for not listening to what I say!"

"That doesn't make sense!"

"I know. You don't get paid for being rude," he shrugged.

"SENSE not CENTS! That was totally lame and cheesy!"

"I like cheese!" he smiled. Then suddenly, his cheery mood disappeared, "Oh no…I cannot like cheese…I am a strict vegetarian! THE PLEASURES OF CHEESE ARE FORBIDDEN TO ME!"

If there were a desk in front of Alice, she definitely would have done a head-desk. Oz laughed at her sitting in the evil little corner of her mind, planning to destroy all things joyful, including cheese.

"Ok, you've set up the chairs, now go sit with your class," Alice attempted to shoo him off.

"I am sitting with my class," he grinned as Alice stared at him as though he were a demon from her own personal Hell.

Oh, the irony.

* * *

After another 30 whole minutes, the auditorium began to empty out in streams.

"Alice…Alice…Alice, wake up!" Oz poked an Alice who had been sleeping the entire time.

"Eh?" She rubbed her eyes, "Oh. Time to go."

She got up and noticed that she and Oz were the only ones left now.

"Hey Alice…" Oz took her wrist and stared downward. Alice couldn't see his eyes due to his curly blonde bangs.

"Wh-what do you want?" She stammered at his sudden bold move.

"Do you…" he looked up at her with empty eyes and a creepy smile, "…want to return to Wonderland?"

* * *

And that concludes the first chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

It's kind of slow and boring, but I'm not used to writing "action" stories, so you'll have to forgive me.

If you read Pandora Hearts, it's so incredibly obvious who the characters are, but when I first wrote this, it was its own story before I realized that it was totally Pandora Hearts material, so...there you have it.

I love Break. So that's why he's a main chara in here :3 And on a random note, my dad's name is Kevin, so when I think of Break as "Kevin" he suddenly loses his awesomeness and melts into a golf-obsessed, Asian daddy. I love my daddy but...he taints the name of Kevin...

In later chapters, there will be "enemies" and since I have extremely low creativity skills, I'll probably use some characters from other animes or possibly Touhou (a computer game). At first, I was going to add Patchouli, but I've found her replacement :3

I didn't realize how similar this would turn out to be like "Are You Alice?" a manga about a boy named Alice...seriously, I am Alice crazed. I'll give a cookie to the person who counts all the times I've written the word "Alice" in this chapter. Plus, I got the name of the "game" the characters play (Alice Game) from Rozen Maiden. I'm expecting them to pop up once in a while too...

The title and idea came from American McGee's Alice game, a gruesome bloody computer game. The Japanese version of the name is "Alice in Nightmare" but it looked boring so I changed it to have the R capitalized. One change makes all the difference in the world :)

-Work of a person obessing over all things Alice who wrote a long A/N...and if she doesn't update within the next ten years, expect her to be dead...you'd probably kill her if she returned this late anyway...


	2. Retrace 2

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

"Return to-" Alice stopped thinking right then and there. She stood up and smacked Oz across the face.

"What the fuck are you playing at? Who the hell are you?" She screamed at Oz who smiled as he got up and rubbed his cheek.

He gave a small grin, "Look up my name, will you?" He scratched the back of his head, "That's all I needed to say. See ya in class," he waved his hand and walked away.

"Wait! That was no explanation-" she reached out her hand to grab his shoulder, but Oz turned around, held her by the wrist, and leaned his face towards hers. Alice's face turned pink at the sudden evaporation of her personal space bubble as he bore his eyes into hers, "I never said I'd explain anything, did I?"

He let her go and headed out the auditorium, leaving a confused and baffled Alice alone.

"…wait a minute…" she realized something, "When did I ever tell him my name?"

* * *

_"I'll kill them…"Alice panted as she clutched her chest. "I'll kill the ones who took mommy, daddy, and Xerxes from me…I'll return…I'll return to Wonderland no matter what!" she screamed into the sky as rain poured over her head._

"Where did the entrance go?"

* * *

Alice banged her head against the table out of stress. An old-fashioned dinosaur of a computer blinked the homepage slowly.

"Name, he had said…" she mumbled idly to herself as she yawned.

"Oi, Alice, hurry up! I wanna play my computer games!" a little boy with dark brown hair with the name of Phillip complained to her.

"Shut up, little brat. It's cause of your goddamn downloads this crappy computer is even crappier than usual!" She stuck her tongue out at her orphan brother.

"This is an orphanage, so we can do whatever we want!" He fought back.

"Yeah, and I want to use the internet, so fuck off!"

Defeated, Phillip retreated to his room, pouting, as he looked for something else to do.

Alice sighed as the computer finished loading the page, "I should have done this in the library…"

_Korean to English Online Dictionary:_

_Hayan Touki_

Alice stared at the monitor.

_White Rabbit_

* * *

_"I hate them!" Alice wailed, "Just because it's raining, they won't let us outside!"_

_"Now, now, Alice, we'll get sick in the rain. Our parents know what's best for us," A ten-year old Xerxes told his six-year-old friend, "We can play indoors."_

_"With what?" She pouted._

_He sighed at her point. He turned his head to the door of the room. Beyond that door were the adults clinking their glasses and having another one of their adult parties. Adult meaning fifteen or older. Xerxes and Alice being the only ones under that age limit, were shoved into a dusty, unused playroom without any interesting toys._

_"If you want to go outside, then why don't you~?"_

_Alice and Xerxes both turned at the new voice. A small boy with light blonde hair, golden eyes, and a pair of rabbit ears stuck on his head smiled a creepy, mischievous smile. He wore a yellow-white, cream-colored outfit adorned with a few jewels here and there._

_Xerxes frowned and gently pulled Alice behind him protectively, "How did you get in here?"_

_"Well that's a first. No asking about my appearance or identity?"_

_"I'm not even going to ask."_

_"I think you look cute," Alice added helpfully._

_"By my appearance or speech?"_

_"Oddly enough, your cutesy way of talking actually fits. You're a girl right?"_

_The boy pouted, "I am not a girl!"_

_"I don't like girl rabbits. That's why I make my rabbits boys in my stories!" Alice smiled boldly._

_"Stories? Well then, tell me your stories, Alice."_

_"Wait, that has nothing to do with-"_

_"Once upon a time…" Innocent, naïve little Alice began to speak. The boy mimicked her story with precise timing, "There was a magical land…"_

_Xerxes stared, horrified and beginning to understand._

_"And the only door to that land was a rabbit hole…a rabbit hole guarded by…"_

_He smirked and pointed to himself, "…the White Rabbit."_

_Alice too realized this and squealed with joy, "White Rabbit~! The White Rabbit's here!"_

_"I prefer to be called Oz," he smiled at his creator who wasn't paying attention. He pulled out a small, silver pocket watch and grinned, "You're late for a very important date."_

_Alice jumped up and down, "Let's go to Wonderland! Let's go to Wonderland~!"_

_"Wonderland doesn't really exist! He's just making it up-" Xerxes was cut short by the glaring Oz._

_"You're only ten, yet you have no dreams of your own. You cannot possibly survive in Wonderland. You depend on reality too much to lead you through life as it is. You play no part in this story."_

_Xerxes scowled as Alice held his wrist, "Xerxes, he's just saying you should keep an open mind! Let's go to Wonderland together!"_

_"But he-"_

_Alice turned to Oz, "He is my friend. He can learn to imagine too! He played a big part in creating Wonderland in the first place!" She turned back to Xerxes, "This way, we can play outside!"_

_Xerxes sighed, I'm not leaving you with this cosplaying freak."_

_Oz twitched at the mention of being called a "cosplaying freak", but little Alice's cheeks turned pink with excitement as Xerxes held out a hand to her, "It won't hurt to have a look-see~"_

* * *

"Alice grew up," Oz smiled to her the next day, as soon as he was told what Alice discovered about himself, "Alice grew up, but so did Wonderland."

"How can a place grow up?" She frowned.

He sighed, "Alice is too logical now. Alice may not survive the Wonderland today." Oz leaned on the side of the wall, "The Queen of Hearts has taken the White Queen. Our wonderful, wonderful White Queen. And do you know why the Queen of Hearts has gone mad? Do you know why Wonderland is nothing but a broken toy box?"

Alice stumbled, "Well, the Queen of Hearts must have gone through something tragic-"

"It's your fault," he scowled angrily as he leaned his face towards her, "Your twisted heart that created Wonderland has defiled it."

* * *

And this concludes the end of the second chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

Thank you to oBseSSiON Is ODd for the second review that encouraged me to get off my lazy ass and write another chapter! Thank you to webtail for his/her first review, though it kind of discouraged me due to the fact it said nothing but "What...the...crap."

I think the pairing here will probably end up as AlicexBreak, but I can add other pairings if you want...

I'm not good with stories that include fluff like Oz did here by leaning himself to her, so...yeah. Oh, and the italized part with the past in which Oz came up...his outfit...I pictured it as the outfit he wore for his first coming-of-age ceremony...and I just realized how awkward it might be with a 10-year old Break meeting a 15-year old (well, he looks fifteen) Oz...

Everything I wanted to say has run away, for my mind has gone blank.

Oh well.

-From someone who has short-term memory loss


	3. Retrace 3

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

Oz pinned Alice against the wall and scowled darkly, "It's your fault. It's your fault Wonderland is twisted. Your ugly heart tainted it. It's your fault!"

Alice stared at him, scared, then regained composure right away. She pushed Oz off her and yelled, "So you're trying to send me on a guilt trip? Ok, so maybe Wonderland did get screwed up, and maybe it is my fault, but you don't have to keep pushing it! It makes you sound like you're pushing the blame onto me!"

She put her hands on her hips and proclaimed, "You asked me if I wanted to return to Wonderland, right? Well, stop trying to make me feel guilty and push me there, I fully intend to go there myself!"

Oz, who had fallen to the floor, looked up at her with surprised eyes and began to laugh light-heartedly, "You're an interesting one. Such a strange Alice."

"Don't laugh about something so serious!" She exploded.

_"You should laugh while you can, Alice…"_

* * *

A seventeen year old with soft white hair yawned as he sloppily put on a long, white coat. It only went up to his elbow and he had no intention of pulling it up properly. After he pulled on his boots, he looked into the mirror and sighed to see that only one red eye looked back at him. His white hair covered the other eye.

At least, it would have, if it were still there.

He trampled down the stairs to find a man with short dirty-blonde hair and glasses waiting for him, "Good morning, Break."

"Oh, it's little Liam," Break grinned as he yanked open a cabinet and pulled out a jar of jam.

"I am older than you," he frowned as he pushed his glasses up.

"I'm awesomer than you," he smirked as he popped open the lid, took two fingers, and scooped up some jam, into his mouth.

Liam pouted as he handed Break a newspaper across the table, "Here's your Reality-World newspaper. Though I wonder why you even care about it…there's never anything interesting in that world."

Break took the jam jar and proceeded to slurp its contents noisily, "Odd you'd be worried about entertainment when others would think the Reality-World would make no sense." He licked his sticky fingers and picked up the paper.

"No, Reality makes more sense than this Abyss we call 'Wonderland'."

"You should be careful," Break frowned as he skimmed through the paper, "Someone once told me that depending on reality is a one-way road to death. Though I don't think he or she phrased it that way. Something like 'You have to keep up with this world, or you'll be left behind'. Anyway, my point is that you shouldn't try to think like a human. Why do you think we have so many Contractors dying all over the place? Stop reading my paper, it'll end up killing you."

"You say it as though it is the newpaper's fault I think logically," he frowned again as he picked up a spoon and played with his cereal.

"I guess it is," he mumbled back.

"Then how come you get to read it?"

"Cause I'm awesomer than you," was his reply before he suddenly stood up and showed him an article in the paper, "Look at this!"

_Missing: Alice Tracy, 13, has disappeared from a children's orphanage in Eureka, California. People are advised to be careful of her if she ever appears. Alice Tracy appeared one day, out of the blue, at age six, claiming to be she was from the 1800s and had returned from "Wonderland". She was and still is an unstable child who graduated from a mental asylum four years ago. Alice has been living as an ordinary middle school student for three years. She was last seen talking to a boy about her age whose identity is unknown._

Underneath the article was a phone number and a picture of her blank face.

"…what's your point? You think this Alice is _the_ Alice?" Liam asked.

Break leaned back on his chair and smirked, "It's begun."

* * *

"Stupid Oz!" Alice screamed against the wind as she slipped on the roots of a large tree in the pouring rain. "Why here? Why NOW?"

"Why not?" He giggled like a schoolgirl and leaped from one root to the other. He skillfully hopped his way to the back of the tree where the roots parted and made a small opening.

Alice stared at the opening as she clutched the side of the tree. Her hair was flying against the wind all over her face, which made it harder to find an even place to stand, "I checked this tree for its abnormal size a million times and there was never an opening!"

"You're the one who made up the rule-I am the guardian to the gateway of Wonderland. Therefore, the gate wouldn't open unless I were there to command its existence!"

"Me and my stupid rules!" she shrieked as she struggled to reach the root Oz stood upon.

Her hand slipped against the tree's rough bark and her foot gave way. She nearly fell flat on her face upon the bottom roots, but Oz managed to grab her wrists and hoist her up. Panicking, Alice squealed and leaned against his chest.

Oz chuckled for a while until Alice realized her actions. Her face turned hot as she sprang away from him and faced the tree with two hands clutching its wet bark.

"So even little Alice has her cute side~"

"Sh-shut up!"

He brushed back the hair matted to his head due to the rain and laughed as Alice slowly turned back to him and back to the rabbit hole.

"…Well, down the rabbit hole we go-"

"Wait!" Oz held her arm and pulled her back before she could jump down, "The entrance is guarded to kill anyone who isn't with me, so you'll have to hold my hand as we descend."

"…I didn't make up that rule, did I?"

"No, this was based on what the Queen of Hearts wanted," he smiled brightly to the upset Alice next to him. "…What? Is holding hands that big of a deal?"

Alice shook her head, "Ha-hah! Not-not at all!"

"Little Alice is a bad liar~" he teased.

"And the White Rabbit is a pervert," she blushed madly and looked away.

"Maybe little Alice is just inexperienced~"

"Oh, you little-" Alice raised a hand to bonk him on the head, only to feel the earth on her other hand crumbling. She lost her balance and nearly hit her head on one of the roots as she accidently fell headfirst down the rabbit hole, "Oz!"

"Alice!" He reached for her hand, but missed it by a few inches. "Alice!"

* * *

Alice screamed as she fell down the black void of an entrance to her Wonderland. A large meat-cleaver shot past her ear, barely missing, and jammed into the wall of dirt behind her. She desperately grabbed a frail rope that stuck out of the wall and attempted to climb it.

The rope could not hold her weight and the dirt began to crumble where it connected. As Alice dodged a long sword that nearly punctured her chest, the dry dirt broke apart and a screeching, broken doll burst out of the wall. The soil irritated her eyes as the doll began chomping at the air and flew down onto her shoulder. Alice screamed, knock it away, and clutched her wounded shoulder. She felt herself descending deeper and deeper into the dark until she hit the back of her head on an edge of the wall that stuck out like a small cliff. She felt her head beginning to spin as she screamed in agony, "OZ!"

As though he had heard her call, Oz appeared with a black, closed umbrella in his hand from above and deflected the other weapons. He caught Alice by the waist and held her tightly in her arms as he opened the umbrella and they gently floated down the vertical tunnel. Nothing came at her. Instead, the dark tunnel became brighter and toys, books, furniture, and even food, was suspended in the air. The tunnel to hell had quieted.

"Are you alright, Alice?" he asked, holding her bridal style.

Alice didn't answer. Traumatized by the whole incident, she had blacked out before hearing him. But before she did, she gave a little gasp. Not because a boy who looked fifteen (but claimed to be thirteen) had saved her, nor was it because of the way he had held her.

Oz had long, cream-colored rabbit ears.

* * *

And that concludes the third chapter for Alice in NightmaRe

Oh my, I've added lots of AlicexOz fluff...I guess.

I'm not good at horror no matter how much I love it, so sorry if you're disappointed. I don't like to list my story as "horror" because I'm so bad at it...

I've debated on whether I should have called this story "Alice in Abyss", since Wonderland is basically the Abyss, but I decided against it for some reason.

I think this story is really boring so far, so forgive me if you think so too. Like I said, I'm not good at "action" stories, and I'm experimenting a lot with Alice in NightmaRe. It will probably be really confusing so I'm planning to write a summary at the very end of the story.

BTW, Break eating jam weirdly...TOTAL BB MOMENT~! (Sorry, BB is a character from Death Note...he's awesome, 'nuff said.)

Two chapters in a day and not even a second glance at my other unfinished stories, stupid me. I better get a suit and armor ready for when I return to them.

-From a selfish person who just ate six fried eggs, yum~...she also thinks Oz is a bit OC in this chapter. Tell her if you think things are beginning to get too OC, please and thank you.


	4. Retrace 4

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

Alice blinked to hear humming.

"Hmm hm hm hm hm hmmm hm hm hm hm hmmm hmmmmm~"

She groaned and pulled off the bed sheets…wait, bed sheets?

Alice rubbed her eyes and saw Oz sitting on a small, pretty, white little garden chair and table. He was munching on a cookie from a rectangular box across from her bed. That wasn't the odd thing, oh no, not even close.

There was no floor beneath them.

"What the fu-"

"Oh, little Alice is awake~!" Oz smiled in a cutesy way as he held his head up with his hands. He was no longer wearing his hoodie and jeans, but a fancy cream-colored outfit that matched his ears. His rabbit ears.

"…What time period are we in?" She stared at him in his 1800s English outfit.

He laughed in response and handed her a cookie, "I can't tell you because I don't know myself, but I can tell you where we are."

She accepted the cookie and gulped it down in one bite. She sat cross-legged on the bed suspended in air and waited for his answer.

"We are…still in the rabbit hole!" He exclaimed dramatically.

"Huh? How-oh yeah, everything changed," she scratched her head, "Once Oz came, hell turned into a mansion for the aristocrats." Alice turned to her surroundings. The walls were still dirt, but there were books, toys, furniture, food, and other random objects floating in the air, not moving from their place. The only light came from a candle on the table Oz had lit.

He smiled and handed her another cookie, "We can't leave until you're ready to face Wonderland, of course! Anyway, little Alice needed rest…poor Alice was nearly killed as soon as she stuck her nose into this place!"

"…You're the one who brought me here, you bastard."

"Touché~" he chuckled as he held his hand up.

At his action, a wardrobe moved from its place and slowly floated towards Oz, "Let see…what should little Alice wear? Oh, how about this?" He pulled out a frilly, poofy dress that was pink and retarded in every way.

"I'll kill you. No jury would convict me," was her response.

Oz pouted and his yellow-white ears drooped down, "Fine then, but Alice, most of the dresses in here are like this."

"Why do I have to change in the first place?" She sulked.

"So you won't stand out and get blasted to bits the second you step into Wonderland~!" He replied cheerfully.

"…"

Alice got up and leapt towards the table Oz had eaten his cookies on. She sat on the table and looked through the wardrobe herself, "Seriously? Pink, black, white, red, blue, gold, everything! EVERYTHING IS FRILLY!"

"I know, isn't it wonderful? Little Alice will look so cute~"

"Do you have multi-personality disorder?"

"Is it frilly and cute?"

"It's everything like you."

"Then yes, I do!"

Oz laughed as he pulled another outfit out, "How about this one? It has no frills, but a big, cute bow!"

Alice snatched it out of his hands, "As long as there's no frill, I'm fine with it."

She sat there, staring at Oz who stared right back with big, innocent green eyes.

"Well?" Oz asked.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to change?"

"Like hell I'd ever strip in front of you!" She slapped him with the outfit.

Oz giggled like a schoolgirl, "Oh fine then." He snapped his fingers and curtains that were hanging around floated towards Alice the way the wardrobe had and curled around her, "Is that a suitable dressing room?"

"Take me back to the bed. Even if I am dressing behind this, I know you're going to peek from under, you damn pervert."

"It's healthy to be perverted!" He sent the bed back and Alice stepped on it before it floated back into its original place.

Oz waited a bit before Alice came out, exploding, "The skirt's too short, dammit!"

"You have a long jacket," he pointed out.

"There are no buttons near the waist and below!"

"Little Alice is so cute~"

"Do not change the topic, dammit!"

* * *

"Ok! Little Alice has her cute outfit, now what's next?" Oz jumped up on the table, excited.

He answered his own question, "Yes! Little Alice will now select a Toy and a pouch!"

"Huh?" Alice glared at him as she munched on the rest of his cookies.

Oz laughed, "You didn't expect me to protect you all throughout your journey in Wonderland, did you?"

Alice blushed and looked away, "Of course not."

"So Alice will need a weapon to defend herself. In the terms in Wonderland, we call this a 'Toy'. The Toy is in shape of an every-day play object, but can shift into a weapon altogether! Isn't this wonderful?"

"I think you're an optimistic fool," she sighed, but she turned back to him, "So what's my Toy gonna be?"

"Anything you want!" He told her. He twirled around on the table, "Look at all the toys here! Choose anything you want and that toy will become your Toy!"

"If this story weren't in writing, that would not have made any sense," she smiled a bit and looked around her.

A book? No, how would that suffice in protecting her?

A teddy bear? Yes, because a teddy bear would scare the monsters away.

Blocks? Alice recalled chucking blocks at a kid's face in preschool and that didn't end up killing him.

Alice looked about her and saw a small case. It was made of black cloth, yet sturdy, so it was obvious it was protecting something inside. She opened the case and it revealed a small, dark brown violin.

She remembered playing violin before her parents died and picked it up, thinking that it should be sufficient in knocking people out.

Before her parents died…

Her parents…

"Oh yeah…," she recalled, "They're totally dead."

Oz looked at her blankly for a minute before asking her, "Alice, did you have an accident? Something that caused you to forget memories?"

Her eyes widened and she turned to face him, "How did you know?"

Oz stared intensely at her, "Because…Alice, do you know why I asked you to return?"

"Because you're the White Rabbit I made up," she replied right away.

"That may not be true," he scratched the back of his head and sighed, "The truth is, I chose you as a possible candidate for the real Alice."

"Real Alice?" She frowned, "I think I am Alice."

"You're going to be hearing this a lot: Who are you?"

"I just said, I am Alice!"

"Good," he nodded, "You must answer confidently like that or else you might lose yourself."

"But that doesn't answer my question!" She complained as she slung the violin over her shoulder.

Oz sighed again, "You see…there was a girl named Alice who created Wonderland. She made the world as a game. If you could beat the people who lived in Wonderland at their own games, you would be able to try and beat the White Queen who ruled the Abyss."

"Abyss? Not Wonderland?" Alice sat down and reached for a jar of taffy sitting on a random counter.

"Wonderland and the Abyss were two different things, Little Alice," Oz leaned back on his chair, "Wonderland was where you could play all day long and return whenever you liked it. The Abyss was a place where all the unnecessary, broken things lay. Over time, Wonderland and the Abyss merged into one place."

"Wait, what happened?" She asked, immersed into this story.

"Wait, let me finish the past," he held his hand up and took a taffy, "The games you played in Wonderland was called the 'Alice Game'. The real Alice was the only one who could win. If others managed to miraculously win, the Will of the Abyss granted them any wish they desired," Oz chewed on his taffy, "This game was a wonderful game. There were no risks involved and nothing to lose. However, Wonderland changed."

"Changed…the Alice's twisted heart you said. Didn't you say that was me?"

"I told you, I don't really know who it is. I was surer it was you for some reason. Something about you rang a bell…but don't ask me, I don't remember. In fact, no one but the Queen of Hearts knows."

Alice sat and waited for him to finish his taffy and continue, "Alice's best friend participated with her in the Alice Game. However, before they faced the impossible duo (Queen of Hearts and the White Queen) there was an accident. Alice returned to Reality to rest before the day she would face them with her friend and he would win the wish he desired."

Oz licked his fingers and grabbed another taffy, "And that day, Alice's parents were murdered and her best friend fell into the Abyss."

"Why would that happen?" She asked.

"Because of the Queen of Hearts," Oz replied, "She saw her friend as a broken, useless being and cast him away. I don't know if the White Queen or the Will had anything to do with it, but soon after that incident, Alice's heart began to defile."

"And that defiled her Wonderland too," Alice realized.

Oz nodded, "Right. So Wonderland and the Abyss merged and the one at the top was the White Queen since the Abyss was actually larger than Wonderland itself. The Queen of Hearts overthrew her. The White Queen was taken hostage and now, the Red Queen is the current dictator of Wonderland.

"But before that, Alice had a game to finish. She came to find her Wonderland warped and played a game against the White Queen. Alice was overwhelmed by the change as it was no longer a child's game, but a game of life-and-death. She lost and was sent to the Abyss as a result."

"Isn't that a good thing? So she can find her friend there."

He laughed, "I thought so too. But he wasn't there. Her anger was enough to get her out of the Abyss and back into Reality. But she came up about 200 years later in the future and the entire incident was too much for her. Rumors say she's dead and left Wonderland to rot, but that's not true at all. Alice's memory was ripped up and scattered throughout Wonderland!

"But because of that…everyone forgot who Alice was. What she looked like, what games she played with them, everything. The Queen of Hearts says she knows how she looks and everything, but a lot of Wonderland's citizens think that's a load of bull, pardon my French."

Alice's brow furrowed, "But why do you bring 'potential candidates for Alice' here?"

"Because that's my job," he gave her a small smile, "I have to find people who may be Alice and bring them here to play the Alice Game. That's what the game has twisted to. And the reason I look for them is because The Queen of Hearts is only a dictator. She doesn't have full power," Oz took a sip of tea he had made as he told his story and Alice swallowed a sugar cube.

"If Alice were to come at any point in time, she could easily strip the Red Queen of her powers. So while Alice doesn't remember, she wants her to come to her so that she will be killed and the power passed onto her. But if Alice is able to win, she will rule Wonderland in however way she wants."

"…Sick, much?" She frowned.

"However, she doesn't want to wait long. There are more than one potential Alice in Wonderland. They are called 'Contractors'. There should be about five Contractors right now, but more will spring up. If you can defeat them, you can have whatever they have in their possession. Their Toy, the Toys they've taken from other Contractors, anything. It is yours. Same goes for Chains."

"Chains?"

"Chains are the ones who were born and live in Wonderland. They are much tougher than the Contractors and were made to kill them. I am a Chain myself, but I'm a different sort. I don't kill."

"Thank god."

"The objective for the Contractor is to gain as much power as possible by defeating the others and defeating the Queen of Hearts. That is the Alice Game," he concluded and stood up, "There may be things I've forgotten to add, but I'm sure if you ask the right people, they'll tell you."

Alice nodded, getting used to his mood swings, as Oz returned to his cheerful mood, "Well then, here you go little Alice, your pouch," he handed her a small, velvet, black bag, "You can put anything in this bag. And I mean _anything_. If you learn from the right people, you can even put souls in here!"

She stared at it as though touching it would kill her.

"Oh come now, it won't bite!"

She scowled and snatched the bag and stuffed it in her coat pocket.

"Good Alice! Now, down the rabbit hole we go~!" He took Alice by the waist and jumped off the table with his umbrella.

Alice screamed as they fell at a breakneck speed downward, "I DON'T WANNA GO TO HELL!"

* * *

And that concludes the fourth chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

I have no life. I really don't. Three whole chapters in one day? And not even caring about my other stories? I am a sinful being.

Anyway, thank you to oBseSSiON Is ODd again for his/her other reviews and pointing out my bad grammar :) I have bad grammar, but I get confused on the rules of it because I am a stupid person.

Red Queen=Queen of Hearts. Same thing here.

Alice's new outfit is the same normal one she wears in Pandora Hearts.

...This is the most I've ever written for this story-2,963 words!

Anyway, the story of Wonderland is really confusing, isn't it? I tried to make it as simple as possible, but I believe I failed. So here's an even shorter version:

Alice in Wonderland with bff. Wonderland=heaven on earth. Red Queen rules Wonderland, White Queen rules the Abyss. You have to play games to get a wish granted. You lose, too bad, but nothing happens. You just have to start over. You win, White Queen gives you a wish.

Alice about to face the last player-the White Queen. Before that, her parents were murdered and bff was sent to Abyss. Abyss=trashcan of Wonderland. Alice faces White. She is mad, so her heart's all screwed up. That changed Wonderland so games became life-and-death games. Alice loses and is sent to Abyss. Can't find bff. She's pissed and fires her pewpew lazor. (lol) She gets out of Abyss into 200 years in future. Alice loses her memory. Wonderland people forget Alice. Hearts remembers.

Queen of Hearts pwns Wonderland. White Queen is powerless. Hearts is scared Alice will come and kick her ass off the throne so she sends Oz to find people who might be Alice so she can kill them.

Game:

Alice has a Toy (weapon) and a pouch.

Contractors-people who might be Alice

Chains-people who were born in Wonderland, made to kill Contractors off to find the strongest Contractor.

Kill Contractor or Chain and you get their stuff.

Lose, you die or Hearts erases your memory and uses you as a servant. Not good D:

I think I got most of the basics over. I made it simple enough so my dim friend I will call "Misa" could understand it. Tell me if I forgot something so I can fix it.

This A/N is really long, but one more thing:

When Alice's like "I dont wanna go to hell" I took that saying from my cousin. We were going to a buffet and the parking lot is underground so we go down down down down down down and we were like at level 12 when she's like "Are we going to a buffet or are we going to hell?"

-From a person with no life, really complicated back stories, and bad grammar.


	5. Retrace 5

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

Oz giggled and hopped about as Alice gasped and heaved at the sudden jump down.

"I fucking hate you, stupid rabbit."

"Aww, don't be like that~! At least I opened the umbrella for a light landing!"

"That umbrella caused you to slip your hand and nearly choke me!" she screamed at him as he took his pocket watch from his coat pocket and opened it.

"Oh my, I've spent way too much time with Alice! I'm crazy late!" He exclaimed as Alice fumed behind him, "Alice is a lucky girl. I don't spend that much time with other Contractors, but Alice was just so pretty, I couldn't help it~"

"I…will…skin…you…alive," was her honest reply.

"Well then," he smiled, completely ignoring her comment, "I believe we should part now. Remember to stay away from the evil threats that lay ahead!"

"Wait!" Alice grabbed a fistful of Oz's hair, "You're leaving?"

"Oh…," Oz looked at her with shining eyes full of love, "I didn't think little Alice loved me so much! I'll stay to make Alice happy!"

"I'm freaking pulling your hair! Do I _look_ like I love you?" She let go with a rough push, "Forget it, I'm glad you're leaving!" She turned around, crossed her arms, and blushed.

_"Alice won't think that later on…" _Oz muttered darkly.

"Huh?"

"No, it was nothing," he grinned and scratched the back of his head.

"…Come visit while I'm there, got it, stupid rabbit?" She murmured quietly.

Oz looked at her for a second and smiled softly, "Of course." He put his hand on Alice's head and kissed her softly on the forehead, resulting in a mad blush from the newest Contractor. However, unlike last time, she didn't yell or hit him.

For all she knew, this might even be the last time she saw Oz. And as annoying as he was, he had grown on her. He bent down to her ear and whispered five, dark, angry words:

"Stay away from the Hatter."

He pulled back and cheerfully waved, "Well, I'll see you later, little Alice~" With a swish of his umbrella and the flat sound of it opening, Oz jumped upward, floating up the rabbit hole and leaving Alice stranded in an empty, door-less room with her Toy as company.

She laughed a little, "Somewhere in the textbook of gravity it explains how that was totally wrong."

Alice turned back to the middle of the room_, hoping_ for the classic glass table and bottle of juice with the label, "Drink me."

If only.

* * *

Break grinned as he picked up his dark blue top hat adorned with a pink sash, roses, and some playing cards stuck onto its side. He put it on and took his cane in his hands.

"Oh? Where are you going, Break?" Liam asked as he began to close the front door.

In the crack of the adjacent door, his grin turned wider, "To greet a guest."

* * *

Alice breathed heavily as she struggled to get up off the floor.

"Ehhh? How could you possibly be Alice? You're such a dull, boring girl," a high-pitched, overly cutesy voice snickered.

"You are…," Alice slowly got to her feet, only to stagger and lean on the wall behind her.

"I," the pinkish-brown color haired girl indicated herself extravagantly as though she were worth everything, "I am Lotti."

"…That didn't explain anything, you idiot."

"You little…!" Lotti yanked out her Toy stuck on the floor from the previous attack and leapt towards defenseless Alice.

She caught sight of the blur. It was her Toy.

Lotti's toy was a key.

A razor-sharp, human-sized metal key.

Alice managed to dodge her next move and stumbled to the left as Lotti grinned, "You sure talk big for someone who can't even fight! What a worthless Contractor!"

She tossed her around a few more times until she became bored and slammed her head against the wall. Alice grimaced as she tried to push away. Lotti's face showed no struggle as she held her head to the wall with her brute strength, "You're incredibly annoying, you know that?"

"How ironic. That comment came from _you_," Alice grabbed a fistful of the curtain on the wall and ripped it off as she shoved it at the Chain.

As coordinated as Lotti was when it came to her fighting abilities, she got tangled up in the deep, dark sheet and tripped humiliatingly. Alice had no time to laugh as she searched for an exit behind the curtain. Not even a window was there. The black wall stared back at her and she bit her lip in apprehension. She turned her head to the floor as though she expected something there.

Bingo. A door.

A door…that is, if her entire body was the size of her head.

Alice cursed under her breath as she jumped away from her opponent who attempted to stab right through her head and ended up jamming her toy on the wall. Lotti easily pulled it out and continued to assault her with quick jabs and slashes.

Alice's mind was too preoccupied by the action of running around to save herself to wonder how this Chain appeared when there was no opening but that little door…and considering how small it was, it didn't seem possible for Lotti to squish herself through and pop right in here.

She was knocked over by the opposite end of Lotti's toy and was thrown across the room. Her own Toy skidded to her left and her vision was beginning to blur. The smell of iron filled her nostrils as she reached over to her forehead and saw red staining her pale hand.

"You were pushing your luck," she laughed maniacally while she slowly walked over to her prey, taking her time, "You knew you were going to die here. Why didn't you just let me kill you? It would have been less painful, don't you think?" She grinned and licked the blood off the end of her Toy, "Well, I had some fun, at least."

As Lotti rambled on, Alice reached for her toy and slowly opened the case to pull out the violin. She gulped.

The idea of throwing blocks at Lotti's head seemed like a better option than fighting her with a frail, delicate instrument at the moment.

The pinkish-brown haired Chain glared at the Contractor, "Oh, so now I'm not good enough to listen to? Maybe I should punish you with my Keyblade. You're pretty sassy for someone who will die by my hands!" She raised her Toy and threw it down onto Alice with all her strength, for the satisfaction of hearing her bones crunch.

Crunch it did not. In fact, there was a heavy, metallic _clink_.

Shocked at the surprise, Lotti jumped back and took a look at what caused the sound.

Alice too looked at the weapon in her hands in shock.

There was a silence as she swished around her blade. Its black aura followed wherever Alice swung, like flames following its heat source. Lotti looked upon the evolved Toy in shock before her stammers turned to laughter, "Oh, that's just too much! You'd actually try to fool me with that fake? That fake Black Rebellion? I applaud you for doing such a good job making a realistic replica, but the Rebellion would never choose someone as stupid as you!"

Alice didn't listen. She was much too busy trying not to shake at the scythe in her hands. A scythe. Ok, so Lotti's Toy was a key that transformed into a Keyblade. That makes sense. But how the hell does a violin turn into a scythe? What does an instrument have to do with a giant farming tool?

"You aren't listening? Again? I'll kill you for sure this time!" With a final effort, Lotti charged at Alice and once again raised the Keyblade at her.

Seizing the moment in which Lotti's middle was totally defenseless, Alice took the blade in her hands and slashed horizontally.

She didn't remember anything after that. Anything but a black blur and Lotti's screams.

Alice trembled as she fell on her knees, dropping the scythe that turned back into a violin. It tumbled to the floor with a hollow, wooden _thunk_ as its owner looked at the results of her actions.

There was no body. The Chain's body had burst into black flames and didn't even leave bones. The only thing left in the room was Alice, her possessions, Lotti's Toy, and the one thing that made her clutch the sides of her head and cry.

Lotti's blood that spelled out two horrifying words:

_Drink Me_

And that concludes the fifth chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

You know what? oBseSSiON Is ODd is the best reviewer ever. That's what. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and even pointing out some flaws in this story!You're like a...uh...beta reader? I don't know, I've never had one of those before. I'm a frickin noob. My religious clan of...well, I'll make a religious clan soon enough (heh heh heh...) but for now, only I will bow down to your awesomeness! (insert werid ooga ooga chant here) And yes, the violin did turn into a scythe! Although it was a bit obvious that it would be a scythe, I bet you're all wondering why I chose the violin? Two words: IKUTO MOMENT!

...because violins are sexy.

And why is it called "Black Rebellion"?

...because Code Geass (or Lulu) was sexy.

End of, no comments.

I realized something as I wrote this-the situation in this story is totally reversed. Oz is the Chain and the "Stupid Rabbit" while Alice is the Contractor. Isn't that weird? I'm INSANE! ...I'm sorry, I just had really gross bittersweet Earl Gray and I can't seem to get over it...the taste of bittersweet made me do some weird things...and I mean WERID things...

Anyway...

That was my first "battle" chapter. That was my first "battle" I've ever written. It's so much easier to see in my head, but when I try to get it on paper, I'm like, "Durrr...what's that word? Run?" And I've always been bad a writing action. I think I'm pretty useless for the most part, considering I can't write action or psycological battles (I'm too dumb). I guess something lighter like comedy is more my forte, but I don't like that very much...So if you were bored and disappointed, sorry 'bout that and help me here. I do feel like I'm repeating myself a lot because I don't know many "action" words (slash, hurl, thrust, dash, etc...these words sound too overused and boring to me) and...yeah. I've been using the Percy Jackson series to find good words to use -_-; Miyan and Gomen. (Sorry and sorry D:)

I was "sick" today (two words: it's Monday) so I've been re-watching Code Geass on my iPod. For some reason, it's not as awesome as I remembered it. Oh well, I guess most of its epicness was in R2. And because I was sick, I am able to finish this boring chapter!

Break will proabably appear next chapter as a main character. And I'm trying to be as dark as possible in this story, but my personalities clash and so do my stories. (When I say personality, I mean like my character is contradicting. I refer to it as 'multi-personality weirdness') So if I try to be dark for one second, I always think of an alternate version in which the story completely crashes and its funny. Maybe I should make a parody version.

Well, enough with my useless chatter.

-From someone who is a good actress, a noob, and has multiple personalities.


	6. Retrace 6

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

_"Now who's this little lady?" he smiled, bending over to Alice and Xerxes._

_"I'm Alice! I created you! You're the Hare, right? The one who's always with Hatter!" Alice's amethyst eyes twinkled at the sight of her character come to life. Alice's kitten, Diane, purred in her arms._

_He laughed at her bubbling energy, "That's right! I'm Liam Lunettes, the March Hare!"_

_Xerxes ignored him and looked around, "If you're the Hare, where's the Dormouse and the Mad Hatter?"_

_Liam turned to him with a mysterious smiled, "The Hatter's still up for debate."_

_He flinched at Liam's smile that turned into a glare and returned it with a scowl. His glare vanished soon enough and he chuckled, "You don't have to worry. As long as little Alice here wins the Alice Game," he quietly added the last sentence._

_"Hey, hey, where's the tea table?" Alice jumped up and down at his feet. "Tea, tea, tea!"_

_"Time for tea? Already?" He checked a small silver pocket watch and nodded, "Why, yes, it's tea time! Time for tea …That doesn't make any sense…Why would tea be given time? Isn't it supposed to be tea for Time? One cannot possibly give tea Time when tea isn't one being. There's so many kinds of tea in this world…then again, why do people say things like 'Package for Alice' or 'Message for Diane'? There are so many Alices and Dianes in this world, how does one know which one's which? I guess you could tell by their faces, but what if you don't know what the specific Alice or Diane's face? If I had a message to give to Diane, I would picture a pretty little girl with blue eyes and blonde hair wearing a blue dress, but I would never imagine it would be Alice's cat!" Liam ranted on and on as he pointed to the yawning cat._

_"Um…Mister Hare?"_

_"Yes?" He stopped his ranting for Alice._

_"Tea?" She asked, hoping it would not return him to his speech about Time and tea._

_"Oh right, of course…," he pushed his eyeglasses up and marched over to the left. He grumbled and gave the air a kick. Instead of a whooshing sound, his foot hit something hard and a hollow plastic sound occurred. He curled his fingers and a random doorknob appeared. Liam turned it to open a door that looked like it belonged on Howl's moving castle*. The door appeared as it was opened, but there was no wall surrounding it. There was a garden that looked like it popped out of a magical fairy Barbie movie beyond the door. (Typical for the girl who created Wonderland...) In short, there was a random door without a building. Just a door. A fricking door. And this guy acted like it was as normal as opening a school locker._

_"Where's the walls?" Xerxes stared._

_"Why do Contractors always ask for walls? It was hard enough making the door, be grateful for what you have!" Liam snapped._

_Xerxes scowled in reply and followed Alice who had already had her squeal and walked inside. Liam followed and closed the door behind them. The door disappeared as soon as it was closed._

_Alice stared, wide-eyed at the garden that was more of a fairytale woodland than a garden. There was a small cottage house decorated with weird things like long sheets of silk, playing cards, teacups, and carrots. In front of the house was a long table that stretched for miles. Following the table was the white fence in front of the table, also stretching as long as it could. You could only see two sides of the fence, for the other two were too far apart to be seen._

_The table was a weird as the house. It had a purple tablecloth and was messy with teacups, plates, spoons, pots, sugar cubes, cream, tongs, and cakes. In the center of the table was a man with messy, long blonde hair and a pair of mouse ears in a black robe, sleeping soundly._

_Liam cringed at the mess and kicked the man over, "Vincent, wake up!"_

_"Nnh?" The man called Vincent slowly crawled off the floor and yawned._

_Liam frowned at his odd behavior and pointed to the two children, "Vincent, this is Alice and her friend, Xerxes."_

_"…ok," Vincent got back in his chair and fell back asleep._

_"WAKE UP, DAMMIT!" Liam punched him in his nose and Vincent fell back onto his head._

_"Owie…," he mumbled before falling back asleep._

_"…Seriously, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between sleeping, blacking out, and dying when it comes to him," Liam scoffed as he dragged the chair and Vincent back up._

_Alice giggled, "We can talk to him later, when he wakes up."_

_"I think he's dead," Xerxes walked over and put his hand on his neck._

_"WHAAA-," Liam screamed as he ran over to his friend._

_"Well, he's good at acting like it."_

_"You godamn-"_

_Xerxes pointed to Alice and frowned, "Hello, kid over here! No use of bad words!"_

_"Don't lecture me!"_

_"Xerxes and Mister Liam like to argue a lot, no?" The black-haired child cocked her head._

_"WE DO NOT LIKE TO ARGUE!"_

* * *

_"Is Xerxes calm now?" Alice asked as they all sat at the table where Vincent snored himself silly._

_"…Alice, dear, I love you and all, but I'm afraid I'll have to kill off one of your Wonderland characters," he growled, emitting a dark aura._

_"So Xerxes is ok!" She concluded as she poured herself some tea._

_"No, no, that tea is cold!" Liam exclaimed as he picked up another pot and handed it to her._

_"Tha-"_

_"No, no, that tea is hot!" Liam cried, picking up a pot of the cold tea._

_"Er—but-"_

_"No, no, that tea is cold!" Liam screamed, "WHAT EVER SHALL WE DO?"_

_"Shut up already!" Xerxes picked up both pots of tea and mixed them together, "THERE! NOW SHUT UP AND DRINK!"_

_"...You fool of a child. Earl Gray and Red Tea don't mix well together," Liam replied apathetically._

_"You have quite the number of mood swings, don't you?"_

_Liam jumped on the table and pointed at Xerxes, "SO WHAT? I'M STILL A ROCKSTAR! I GOT MA ROCK MOVES-"_

_Xerxes jumped on the table after him, "That's the wrong time period, you moron!"_

_Liam calmed seated himself, "You should get off the table, boy. It's extremely impolite."_

_"You little contradictory-"_

_"Come on, Xerxes! Just sit next to me!" Alice laughed as Xerxes fumed._

_Xerxes continued to frown as he sat down. Alice pinched his cheeks, "You should stop being so negative. It's Wonderland, after all!"_

_He sighed, pulling back his silvery white hair and turned his rose-red eyes at her, "I didn't think Wonderland would be such a pandemonium. It's hard to think logically-"_

_"Don't!" Alice held a finger to his lips, "This is Wonderland! You mustn't think logically in a place like this or else you'll be left behind! You need to go with the flow-be happy-go-lucky! Imagination gives you power here."_

_"We aren't even married and you're already trying to change me?" He grumbled._

_Alice blushed, "You have to marry someone to change them?"_

_Xerxes laughed and ruffled her hair, "It's just a saying."_

_Apparently, she hadn't been paying attention as she proclaimed, "Then if it is to change Xerxes, I'll marry him."_

_"No, I just told you, you don't have to!" He turned away as he felt his face burning._

_"…no?" Liam asked._

_"Excuse me?" She cocked her head as to indicate she wasn't listening._

_"You wouldn't forget me, no?" He repeated._

_"Why do you worry about such a thing?"_

_"Because if you lose the Alice Game, you lose direct memory of anyone you met in Wonderland."_

_Xerxes's eyes widened at the sudden rule of the game, "I thought you had nothing to lose in this Game!"_

_"If you were to replay the game and be too familiar with the characters in it, the Game would be too easy to win," Liam pointed out as the boy in front of him crunched on a sugar cube._

_"Even so, if Alice forgets of you, you will be erased."_

_"Alice will remember my presence. That a 'March Hare' exists. However, she will not know me personally. Alice is a special case because she is our Creator. If it were not her, she would have forgotten the existence of Wonderland completely," he sighed and held his head up with his hand, "Which is incredibly annoying since we have to go over explaining everything and introductions again…though I guess Hatter would manage…he thinks it's always 6:00…the fool, trying to murder Time for goodness sakes…he got what he deserved, but now we need a new-" Liam coughed and changed the subject, "Anyway, my point is that Alice must win this Game or else she'll forget poor me!"_

_Alice nodded in understanding, "Well, in order to keep my precious memories, I'll win the Alice Game. It must be easy-it's named after me and apparently, my Wonderland characters did create it for me when I was bored."_

_Liam smiled as she grinned back in her childish manner, "So you better not forget me either!"_

* * *

And that concludes the sixth chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

I'm sorry to say that this is more of a filler...I'M SORRY SORRY SORRY!

And I apologize dramatically for updating so late! I had three essays and one giant project due the 15th and I'm still not even close to done with it! Please bear with me until then! Also, my penpal recently...passed away. I know it is inhuman to use someone's death as an excuse, but I've been a bit depressed about that.

HORRAY FOR 10 REVIEWS! Ah, the simple pleasures of life...

Thank you to MakenshiCrona, hopexescaliber, oBseSSiON Is ODd (KAMI-SAMA WAHAHAHAAA), EiseiNoMuzai, and Icequeen for reviews! I've never had so many people review at once! Thanks to those who faved and put it on alert! I feel happyful!

RANTING START:

I've taken a liking to rereading Naruto (SASORI PWNS), reading Ouran High School Host Club (HARUHI IS AWESOMESAUSE), and rereading Vampire Knight (SHIKI FTW). Of course, Pandora Hearts, Bakuman, and Code Breaker are on my reading list...though I wish they'd hurry up with Pandora Hearts already. I hate how it's monthly and not weekly like Bakuman or Naruto. (I probably sound like a Narutard for liking Naruto, but people don't seem to realize how hard it is to create a wonderful, popular manga.)

My dad thinks I'm becoming antisocial and a hateful person, so he allowed me to have a sleepover party with five to six people...I know I'm inviting my friend I will call Misa, but I don't have enough friends...maybe dad is right. I find real people incredibly annoying and animated people much more interesting. I wish he'd leave me to my fantasies...

Speaking of Misa and fantasies, Misa and I are planning to go to AnimeNEXT cosplaying as Alyss and Cheshire (ME CHESHIRE WEEE)...and with that one saying, I've pretty much told you where I live...

I have to go to sleep now =_= toodles.

SHORT RANTING END.

-From someone who is sorry for the slow update and is stressing on writing an autobiography for her school project.


	7. Retrace 7

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

"Oh my god, oh dear god, oh fuck…" Alice backed away as far as she could away from the blood, "But if it's like the book…I need to drink it to get through the door…oh god, oh god, oh god."

She could feel tears streaking down her paled face as she whimpered, "I just want to go back to that shithole of a house already…I don't want to drink…I don't want to…"

It took her a while before her breathing returned to normal and she calmed herself enough to crawl back to the lettering in red.

"Drin-Drinking it'll s-set you fr-free, Alice…away from here…away from this room…this room where I-" her crying made her head spin and her breath uneven. Remembering the fact that she had killed someone didn't help. At all.

She attempted to calm herself anyway as she cupped her hands and brought the red to her lips.

Her fingers trembled extensively and spilled all the blood before she could sip it. Alice brought her trembling hands in front of her and began another round of tears. She buried her face in her stained hands as her tears washed away the blood. After a few minutes, she noticed something off. Her waist and down had been plunged in water. Alice quickly shot back to her feet in shock.

"Wha-" the entire room was up to her knees in water. Alice tried to wipe away her tears, but more spilled and blurred her sight. The room had become too blurry for her and she couldn't see a thing-all she could tell was that the water was rising fast, "Is this the result of my childish cries? No, it shouldn't be possible…I only cried a little! Or…the world is small and I'm that big which makes my tears big enough to fill up…no, Alice, you read too many picture-books…This makes no sense! I must be mad, talking to myself!" She finally felt her tears drying, but slipped as she attempted to walk across the room and grab her Toy and Lotti's Keyblade.

"Fuuu-" she screamed, before realizing that that would result in water pouring into her mouth.

Too late.

She sat back up and coughed, only to find that her feet did not reach the ground. Alice yelped at a giant, light gray wall as she swerved into it. Once her face slammed onto it, it suddenly disappeared and her Toy and its case were in her hands.

"Phew," she sighed as she grabbed the Keyblade that had returned to its giant form…wait-

"I shrunk?" Alice tried to float while dragging the Keyblade.

"Oh fu-I think I just threw up in my mouth…" she groaned in her head.

With the little swimming skills she had, she managed to get to the door and with the Keyblade, she clicked it open, then pushed desperately at the door to get out of the waters. It cracked open and the water spilled out, dragging her along.

Alice sputtered and coughed out some of the terrible mix once she reached outside and the water soaked into the black earth.

"I'm out…I'm out…" she gasped of relief while she surveyed her surroundings.

The small patches of grass at her feet were healthy, but gray. The soil was a viciously dark black and the sky was a blood-red with small gray clouds. Once in a while, Alice could see steps leading up into the clouds, but it constantly shifted, going from left to right as though the staircase was confused where to go. There was no sun and to her left was a forest. Everything in Wonderland appeared to be in black, white, or red.

"I guess it's to be expected as this place is being ruled by a dictator whose name has the word 'red' and 'hearts' in it…" She thought as the Keyblade reverted back to its small form and she stuffed it in her pouch, "Ah! My own Toy!"

Alice reached over and flipped open the violin case. She sighed to see that the instrument wasn't damaged by the water.

"So it is magical…" Alice muttered.

She sensed something watching her. Alice turned her head behind her, hoping it wasn't going to be another Chain.

Well, she was close.

A giant of a monster grinned maliciously at her. It was a giant baby doll's head with hairy spider legs. Its mouth was sewn shut, but it yanked itself open, snapping the threads and drawing blood as it attacked her with spider silk from its mouth.

"Not again!" Alice was too unprepared. She could do nothing but shield herself with her arms as the silk snapped at her.

"Best be careful, Miss~" a blur of white and purple literally swept her off her feet and swiftly dashed to the right, evading the demon's attack.

"Wh-Wha-" Alice stared at the seventeen year old boy who smiled cheerfully and held her bridal style, "Wh-who are you? Put me down right now!"

"And that's what I get for saving your sorry ass?" He pouted like a seven year old as he obeyed.

"A Contractor? A Chain? What is that thing?" Alice screamed, ignoring his remark as she pointed to the demon.

"Mad Baby…it's a sort of Chain. Nasty kind too. It was probably a Fallen Contractor," He replied while the creature turned towards them. The boy gently took off his top hat and placed it on Alice's head. He pulled flicked a silver piece at the top-middle of his cane and yanked out a long sword from it.

"The cane's just a sword and scabbard in disguise!" Alice thought in awe as her savior ran up to the Chain and sliced it in half.

A rain of red fell upon them while its body disintegrated into ashes like the first Chain had. The boy returned his sword into its sheath and grinned, "The Fallen ones are the ones you don't have to fight. You get a choice when it comes to that."

Alice stared at him before turning her attention on something else, "My Toy!"

He dropped his smile to turn to Alice's Toy that lay on the ground, shattered to pieces due to the Chain's attack.

"How'm I gonna defend myself…I don't want to use the Keyblade…"

"Keyblade? Ah, I see, you ended up fighting Lotti, didn't you? I didn't think she'd ever get killed. The clever Contractors simply bit her to escape through the door. I guess we need a new replacement for her now," he laughed, "Why don't you take it to Time?"

"Time?" she sniffled, "As in Father Time?"

"At least you know his title. Most Contractors come here clueless. And yes, Father Time…though I'd rather you not refer to him as 'Father'. Stupid man, making it 6:00 every second of the day! Selfish, selfish, selfish!"

"Uh…If I'm not mistaken, you're the one who's stuck at 6…everyone else is moving on…"

"Lies!" He roared dramatically.

Alice gave a small grin as she laughed, "Alright, alright, mister…but how can Time help me?"

"Time's Toy has the ability to warp time to his command. At his hands, it won't be permanent, but in the hands of a Contractor, it's a crazy powerful weapon that can send and lock anyone or anything into the past, present, or future forever. He's no rookie, but if you can obtain his Toy, you may be able to lock your Toy into the past where it wasn't broken."

"Woah…it's perfect!" She exclaimed as he pushed back his ivory hair, only to find it fall back down over one eye.

"But it's one-use only for Contractors, so you best get it first before someone else does."

Alice dropped her smile and glared at him, "Wait a minute…are you a Contractor or a Chain?"

"I'm a prisoner," he replied playfully.

"That doesn't answer my question. Why are you even helping me?" She stood up and with a wavering confidence, she took a stance.

He sighed, "That kind of fake confidence will get you nowhere. Plus, that was two questions…which one should I answer? Hmmm…"

"Just answer!"

The boy cocked his head and pretended to think, "Hmmmm….last time I checked…I was a Chain. But don't worry! I have absolutely no intention of killing you!" He grinned darkly at her and took a step forward, "I have no intention of killing the key to my freedom."

She gulped and took a step back, trying to ignore his ominous words, "Why not? Isn't it your job?" Alice slowly took the miniature Keyblade from her pouch.

"Well…" he scratched his head, back to his nonchalant manner.

"Break?"

The boy turned behind him at the sound of his name.

"Oh, if it isn't little Liam~" he nodded in a friendly manner.

"Liam…" something in Alice's mind triggered at the name.

His name…his face…his voice…something about them rang a bell.

"Are you neglecting your duties to our Queen?" he glared darkly as he stepped out of the trees.

"What Queen? Are you talking about that damned dictator? I have no loyalty to that bitch," Break spat.

"You were made a Chain for a reason…because you were worthy…so why aren't you killing off that Contractor in front of you?" He replied, angrily.

"It's not about whether one is worthy or not. If one was really that 'worthy' then it would not be as simple as to find a replacement, no?" Break replied cooly.

But his manner…Liam's manner…something was off about it…

"You're always contradicting the Queen…therefore…" Liam pulled out a small silver knife from his pocket. It grew in size as the Keyblade had, "Break, you are under arrest for treason against her Majesty the Queen."

"Like your tableware will kill me off," he snorted as he drew his sword again and took a stance.

Wasn't he a happy-go-lucky kind of guy? What happened…who was this Liam Lunettes in front of her?

Break's opponent charged at him. Break simply smirked and easily deflected the attack.

"You are a traitor," Liam stated apathetically.

What happened to his smile?

"Liam, you never cared this much about serving the Queen. Why do you care now?" Break asked as he lifted the thin sword.

"I have learned…" Liam pushed his eyeglasses up, "That in order to maintain peace and order, one must obey the leader they have chosen and give them their full support in pursue of happiness."

"What?" He shouted, "That's annoyingly logical and corny! I told you thinking logically would lead to your demise! This is NightmaRe! The mix of a garbage can Abyss and the Heaven that fell to Hell of a Wonderland! There is no peace and order to maintain here! At this rate, the word 'happiness' wouldn't even be found in the dictionary! All we have is a dictator who does what she wants, no matter how much it hurts her citizens! A spoiled daughter of evil!"

"That is what you believe! But I find every day peaceful! I find myself happy! But if you won't agree to maintain it, then I will erase you with my own hands!" Liam jumped up and attempted to hit him. Break rolled over and dodged the attack.

What happened to his laughter?

"Then I'll leave!" Break cried out as he continued to evade Liam's slashes, "I'll leave and won't disturb your damn peace! I refuse to die because I didn't have the guts to hurt my best friend!"

What happened…to Liam?

"LIAM!" Alice's voice ringed in his ears, "Liam, what happened to you? Where did you go?"

Liam turned and scowled at Alice, "I do not know you, little girl! Your shrill voice is so annoying…it makes my head hurt!" He changed his objective and charged at the defenseless Alice who had not yet learned how to properly fight for herself.

"I won't let you!" Break made a swing at Liam's side and missed as the Hare jumped away.

He attacked him again and was able to stop his blade from hurting Alice. The two were locked in battle and neither made any attempt to give up.

"She will lead to my own happiness and peace, and I will not let you kill her!"

"You call yourself a Chain?" Liam screamed.

"I was never a Chain until I lost my humanity!" Break screamed in reply.

They broke apart and jumped in opposite directions. Alice swung the Keyblade at Liam who easily detective her and smoothly dodged it.

"Too slow!" he laughed as he threw her to the ground.

Alice winced in pain as her companion lunged himself at her attacker again and made a swing at him. Liam was slower this time and his sluggish movement resulted in a loss of an arm. He shrieked in agony as blood splattered across Alice's face and its flesh and bones disintegrated into gray sand.

Break slammed his foot at Liam's abdomen as they both crashed onto the ground. The brunette scrambled before the ivory haired man clutched Liam's neck and held his sword up. Liam's Silver Stiletto fell and stabbed itself onto the black earth next to Alice.

"You can either choke, be beheaded, or die of blood loss," Break growled, "Take your pick."

There was a silence broken by Alice's trembling voice, "Liam…Liam, don't you know me? I am Alice…I'm Alice! I came here with Xerxes!"

"Ah-" Break felt a sharp pain in his head as though a knife had stabbed through his head and began twisting sadistically. He dropped his weapon and clutched the sides of his head in pain.

"_Xerxes, Xerxes, Xerxes_…" the name rang in his head.

"_If it is to change Xerxes, then I'll marry him!"_

"_Come on, Xerxes! Sit next to me!"_

"_Is Xerxes calm now?"_

"_Xerxes!"_

"_Xerxes…"_

"_Xerxes~!"_

"_Alice, dear, I love you and all…"_

"NO MORE!" Break screamed hoarsely as he picked up his fallen weapon and stabbed off Liam's other arm.

"Break, stop it! You're hurting your friend! What's the matter?" Alice screeched over Break's screams.

"Stop it! STOP IT!" He cried out, his ears deaf to Alice's voice, "I don't know, I DON'T KNOW!"

"Liam, help him!" She cried desperately, fearing for both Liam's and her life at the raging Break.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Break shrieked as he raised his sword.

"BREAK!"

* * *

"...You'd never forget me, no?" Alice felt tears streaming down her face.

"I've always hated selfish Time…for locking the Hatter at 6 o'clock…" Liam laughed lightly as his body began to crumble, "I guess in the end…I just wanted to protect my only friends…but my own powerlessness blinded me…and I forgot who my 'friend' was…"

Liam turned to Alice and smiled brightly, "Nice to meet you again, Alice! You've grown quite a bit!"

Alice couldn't help but smile as well, despite her tears, "It's great to meet you again too, Liam! I guess the both of us forgot out promise!"

He only smiled as he faded to ashes and became nothing but a sheet of sand over the ground.

"Sorry, Liam…I'm such an idiot!" Break thought as his eyesight fuzzed and lost consciousness, "With that proud manner of yours, I should have known…what a useless friend I am…"

"_I won't forget you…so you better not forget me either!"_

* * *

And that concludes the seventh chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

I felt sorry that I wrote such a short chapter before, so I decided to IGNORE ALL HOMEWORK AND PROJECTS DUE IN NINE DAYS AND TYPE THIS CRAP OUT FOR YOU ALL.

Thank you to my usual goddess, oBseSSiON Is ODd and MakenshiCrona for their motivating reviews! HURRAH HURRAH! THE ANTS GO MARCHING TWO BY TWO HURRAH! HURRAHH!

I AM SORRY. I am sorry I killed off Liam. I really am. I do like the guy (and apologize sincerely to him for mistaking him for a girl...that also goes for InuYasha...) and all, but he was sort of unnessesary to the story. A moment of silence for Liam!

...

(toilet flushing)

Alright, that didn't work.

Anywaaayy...

KEYBLADE. I forgot to mention that I got that from Kingdom Hearts. I don't really like Kingdom Hearts too much (I find it rather dull), but the name suited the weapon, so there you have it.

My cousins from Korea are comming for the summer~ Except two are off to Europe after that while the two brats stay with us. HURRAH.

BTW THIS CHAPTER BROKE THE RECORD FOR LONGEST CHAPTER IN THE STORY-3,080 WORDS!

Eh...well, yeah, that's pretty much it...hope you enjoyed a long chapter of Alice in NightmaRe~! (dramatic waves) GOODBYE FOR NOW~

-From someone who doesn't like brats and cannot respect the dead properly.


	8. Retrace 8

**Alice in NightmaRe**

"_A game?" Alice asked._

"_Yes, a game of cards," the blonde man smiled as he gently laid down a shuffled pack of cards, "This is your first Play, no?"_

_Alice nodded as she seated. Xerxes stood behind her and observed like a mother hawk._

"_Let's see, first of all, do you know what a Play is?" He asked as he cocked his head._

_She nodded, "It's what you do with your friends in playrooms. It's also when you dress up and act things out."_

_He gave a small chuckle, "Not that kind of play. A Play is a term used for a game played by each individual Sealer."_

"…_Huh?" Even Xerxes was confused with this one._

_The man sighed, "That stupid Rabbit doesn't explain anything anymore, does he?"_

"_He isn't stupid!"_

"_He's the stupidest creature ever to appear on the face of the Earth," replied Xerxes at the same time._

_He nodded solemnly at the ivory-colored haired boy, "That might have been the most correct thing you have ever said in your life."_

"_Such annoyances need to die."_

"_In a very dark hole."_

"_Alone," Xerxes added._

"_Guys!" Alice cried, "You can't kill Ozzie! I love Ozzie! He's a wonderful little bunny and bunnies will die if they're very lonely!"_

"_Are you a bunny, Alice?" Xerxes asked playfully._

"_I am a girl!" She proclaimed._

"…_I don't recall questioning your gender," he laughed._

_The man cleared his throat and the two turned back to him, grinning guiltily._

"_I suppose it was my fault we got off topic…anyway, please check your pocket, Alice."_

_The amethyst-eyed girl slowly stuffed her chubby hands into her apron pocket and pulled out a small piece of folded paper. It was a dark, gloomy red and had a dark, fancy black heart printed on it. She opened it to see six, fancy blank circles outlined in black and a blank, fancy, black-outlined heart after the row of circles. Her name was etched in golden calligraphy at the top and she eyed the circles arranged in a neat little line._

"_What's this?" Her excitement at gaining such a pretty object seeped into her words as she traced her name with her small fingers._

"_That is your Seven Seal Card," he explained, "There are six opponents to play games against in Wonderland. I am the first, so if you are able to beat me at my own game (or Play as I have mentioned) I will place a seal on the first circle. That indicates that I was defeated by you and you can move onto the next opponent, or Sealer. If you beat all six Sealers, you get to have a Play with the Seventh Sealer, the Queen of Hearts. Beat her and you get your wish! Lose and start all over again at the beginning with me! That's what we call the Alice Game!" He clapped his hands enthusiastically before plopping his head back down on the garden table in which they sat._

"…_Mister?" Alice shook him, "Mister, wake up!"_

"_Wake up, old man," Xerxes snapped in irritation at his random downfall into slumber. He tugged the mouse ears perched upon his head and the man's eyes snapped open._

"_Ow! What was that for, stupid brat?" He complained, "…Who are you again?"_

"_I'm Xerxes and I want to know why I don't have a Card," he replied irritably, obviously showing that he had been anticipating his own._

"_Brats don't get Cards…wait, how do you know about the Cards? Could it be? THE STUPID RABBIT ACTUALLY DID HIS JOB FOR ONCE?"_

"_Shut up!" A teacup randomly flew to his head and hit the side of his temple with a crash. The cup broke into pieces and he was sporting out blood like there was no tomorrow._

"_Mister!" Alice cried in worry._

"_Don't worry about the idiot…oh look, he fell asleep AGAIN," Liam rolled his eyes as he appeared with a tea tray, complete with everything but one cup, "Stupid Vincent," he muttered, "Stupid, stupid Vincent."_

* * *

Break's eyes pressed together in agitation before slowly fluttering open with a small groan. That is, one eye; Alice wasn't sure of the other that was hidden beneath his hair.

"Are you awake?" She asked nervously as he struggled to sit up.

He vaguely noticed Alice's long coat over him like a very small blanket, considering his height.

"Wha –"

"Before you accuse me of anything, I'd like to say aloud that I did not see anything and I helped you so you have no right of teasing, poking, making fun of, etc, etc, me!" She blabbered.

He looked around to realize he was at the woods next to the grounds on which they had previously fought two Chains. His eyes traced down to his pale abdomen messily covered up in strips of what was once his coat, dotted and splashed with red and brown stains.

"…Man, you suck," he remarked at her clumsy work.

"…And this is what I get for saving you?" She roared, "Sorry I'm not a college graduate with a PhD in Health Sciences, but at least I did something!"

"It's your fault I got hurt," he shrugged before wincing at his actions, "What's a 'colleg' and a 'p-Aechi-Dee' anyway?"

"It's a...," Alice shook her head, "No, that is completely irrelevant; I want to know why you aren't dead when your insides ended up on the outside!"

He glanced back down at his wound before replying solemnly, "I don't ever remember taking in this much damage."

"Neither do I…he must be a very good fighter, that Liam…," Alice turned around and tried to hold in her tears, scolding herself mentally for being such an out-of-character crybaby lately.

There was an awkward silence at the mention of their old friend before Break swallowed his feelings that were in pandemonium said nonchalantly, "Well, you can tell I'm not dead since I don't appear to be a pile of ashes."

"What?" the newbie Contractor scrambled to the Chain, "Oh my god, you're the color of ash!"

"Hey…," his eye started to twitch in annoyance as she touched his cheek.

"You feel sandpaper-y!" She claimed.

"H-hey!" Break shivered a bit at the sudden touch before pushing her hand aside, "I-I'm perfectly fine!"

"Did you catch a cold? You're turning red!" Alice panicked, now fully standing up.

"You're overreacting!" He snapped before forcing her to sit down by yanking her arm, "And why do you care so damn much? I'm a Chain, you should be bashing me down with the nearest solid object at hand!"

"I don't think I can handle any more deaths…" she whimpered in reply.

"Then why did you come? If you can't handle deaths, then there's no point in coming here. You'll just end up being used and hurt," Break grumbled as he poked the fire in front of them Alice had made before with a stick.

"But I never wanted to…to the point of killing –"

"Is Miss Alice _stupid_?" He asked in his normal playful tone.

"…Say that again," Alice challenged.

"I am not kidding," he replied, his words in total contrast to his cheerful manner, "Miss Alice appears to remember Liam when Liam didn't remember her till the last minute. She has mentioned that she came here about seven years before. I don't see her so satisfied with life as it is, considering she came of her own free will as all Contractors do."

He leaned closer to her and asked darkly, his face drained of the smile it previously held, "**What did you lose in order to have the will to return to this hell?**"

Alice silently stared in shock and fear as the Chain continued, "Hasn't that stupid Rabbit told you? Once you come in, the chances of returning to the world you came from drops to .00001%. Maybe it was easier in the past, where the Alice Game was just a playtime game for kids to enjoy after lunch and there was no loss in the game, other than something stupid, such as your favorite toy. But due to the damn, fucked up mind of our lovely creator, you can't escape the Game without winning it. It's not a mix-and-match game to win candy anymore – you fight to win or die trying. Even if you die, don't think you'll be seeing the gates of Heaven anytime soon. The horrid spiritual energy here will twist and shape your soul into a Chain, a servant of the damned Red Queen."

Break jabbed a finger at her shoulder, "So what was it? **What did you lose?**"

Alice gulped as she tried to string the words in her head into a sentence, but the reality hit her a bit too hard. She couldn't escape. She couldn't possibly win with such low stamina. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place – no, scratch that. She was stuck between a monotheistic Hell and the Hell of other religions. No matter how hard she struggled, she knew it was useless. Alice would die and be a slave, and there was no changing her fate.

"Well?" He asked in a calm, but spine-shivering manner.

"I…I lost a friend," she managed to say, trying to hold back hot tears.

He let out a dry, humorless laugh, "Don't you know that there's more than one person in the world?"

"He was different!" She burst angrily, "While my parents were busy kissing the asses of the nobles of the 1800, he took care of me in their place! While everyone else was out there for my family's money, he was there to be my friend! He believed in everything I said, he loved me more than anyone would ever bother without even trying, and I depended on him to the point that he fell into the Abyss in my place! And when I descended there to search for him, I get my ass kicked to the 21st century when no one believes I'm probably over three hundred years old already and I'm alone! _ALONE!_ I hate loneliness more than anything! I'm still wondering why I'm not dead yet!"

Break's cold manner was replaced by a shocked, concerned look as Alice vaguely noticed her sight was blurring and tears were spilling again. She laughed dryly, "One would assume I've run out of tears by now…"

The Chain's eyes were suddenly very interested at the beautiful black patch of dead grass on the ground, feeling guilt, shame, anger, and sorrow mix in his heart.

"Could I at least know who this special person is?" He inquired softly as though speaking any louder would break the Contractor next to him.

"He's Xerxes. My wonderful, wonderful Xerxes!"

Alice jolted up, startled at the loud crash as she turned to Break who had slammed his fist onto the wide tree trunk he had been leaning on, "What's the matter?" She asked in frantic worry, "Does your head hurt?"

He clutched the side of his head in agony and grimaced, "Dammit! That god damned name!"

Slowly, his tense body relaxed and his hand quietly let go of his scalp. When Alice was sure he was psychologically and mentally alright, she whispered silently, "Who are you?"

Her response?

"I don't know."

She shifted uncomfortably before asking, "Are you…him? My only one friend in the world? Him, whose name you always react to?"

He frowned in confusion, "What makes you think that?"

"…I'm sorry to say that despite my pure admiration for him, I don't remember his face nor any significant details of it, but you keep…you know, reacting to the name…and he disappeared about seven years ago, no? He was ten then. How old are you?"

Break furrowed his brow as he tried to remember, "Somewhat seventeen, I would guess…but I have no memory of a six-year old girl, so you must be looking at the wrong person."

Alice suddenly felt questions blossoming in her head. As she tried to organize the information she already knew between the questions she had, she inquired again, "What exactly do you remember?"

The Chain leaned his head back, feeling physically and mentally exhausted with the dire need to sleep, "I was human," he mumbled, half asleep already, "I didn't have a name. I knew my age…and I knew for sure that I had been abandoned."

He yawned, "Every other Chain didn't age the way I did. I once cut off my finger by accident, but the finger didn't disintegrate as it would have for Chains…I just woke up the next day to see it back on my hand as though it had never been sliced off."

Before he could think of anything else, she fired off another question. However, she didn't think carefully with this one – it had been bugging her since the second they met and accidently bluntly asked, "What happened to your eye for you to cover it up so neatly?"

She clamped her mouth with her hands before he mumbled something that sounded like "Punishment" and drifted off into sleep.

Alice sat there for a second, digesting all the information that had been stuffed into her brain that day. She then gently pulled her coat over her wounded savior and ruffled his hair softly, the way Xerxes had once done for her.

"You know, Break," she murmured as she lay comfortably on the grass, "I think you're in need of someone like Xerxes too…"

With that, death's counterfeit took over and she softly fell asleep with Xerxes on her mind.

* * *

And that concludes the eighth chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

**I am so mother-flipping sorry. I AM! I know I've been, like, abandoning this story and I have no good excuse other than that I've acutally started to read Bleach ("That's not a good excuse, bitch!") and that I've been getting Bs in Advanced Mathematics, but you know how Asian parents roll -_- BUT I've been doing a whole damn lot of research on Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for this story, considering how my mind can't seem to process old fashioned crap. **

Oh, please excuse me for my cusses. I've been having some problems with cursing lately and I'm trying to stop. I blame it all on Grimmjow and Hidan. ("Sure, blame the FICTIONAL characters!" Wait, why am I talking to myself? "Cuz I'm cool like that".)

I've been planning some of the story already. I think I've already said that this story was not a fanfiction until I realized how close it was to Pandora Hearts and I made it that way. Everything I've written so far is actually in a notebook. It's a really crappy version, considering how I didn't edit or bother to make it good since it was for my eyes only. And I've decided to incorporate a very important theme in this story. The characters that are going to appear (and already have appeared) will be (in not any particualar order): Vincent, Liam, Lotti, Echo, Noise (Zwei), Duke Barma, Jack (in request of the god of reviews), Eliot, Leo, Alyss, Gilbert, Oz, Cheshire, and Sharon. What's the theme?

...let's see if any of you can find out, cause they're more than one.

Any K-Pop lovers out there? I fell in love with it when I was like ten, but didn't grow a SHINee obsession until now x)

Thank you so much to my reviewers!

Coraline: I'm sorry I haven't updated lately. Here's a brick. Go ahead, smash my skull or shove it up my nose, but remember - injury=less chapters :) And I'm actually really glad that someone's curious about this story. I guess I sort of left you off at a cliffhanger-ish moment...I'm such a bitch...I've been thinking about getting in one chapter a month since my damn procrastination is a bitch like that. I don't think you or any other readers like that idea, but...yeah... Oh, and since you stated that you use different names, I'll thank you with the names since I don't know who's who :)

hopexescaliber: I hope this chapter cleared your confusion as to whether Break remembered Alice or not :) And thanks for being interested, that alone makes me giddy and happy!

Nya: I'm assuming you're the same person as Coraline, but if you're not, forgive me. And here's the update, sorry for all the waiting :(

MakenshiCorna: Thank you so much! You really don't understand how wonderful you made my day with that one review! I love Death Note and Kuroshitsuji too, though I think they sort of fucked up the second season :(

And finally...

Our lord/lady, oBseSSiON Is ODd:

Sorry about the fast pacing. I did realize how fast I was going by the time I got to Break and Alice's dialogue, but I was writing late at night and my parents were screaming at me about taking a shower and going to sleep and I really wanted to update before sleeping, considering that I was nearly done. I'll be sure to fix it someday... Oh, and I've got my Death Note and Cheshire Cat headband ready - let's roll to that war, baby xDD Don't worry about never playing Kingdom Hearts cause neither have I. I find the story itself kind of boring (I'm such a hypocrite. From what I know about Kingdom Hearts, my story appears to be like a Pandora Hearts version of it...I didn't realize that until now...)

And about Liam's death...

I should stop there to get you all pissed ;P

-From someone who probably has an angry mob, ready to kill her on the Internet, and is sure she forgot something to say...no, it isn't the P.S. below.

P.S. Happy belated birthday to my little brother whose birthday was the 12th of May...AND HAPPY HOLIDAY TO ME CUZ ITS FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, A DAY BETTER THAN ANY OTHER HOLIDAY OR MY BIRTHDAY!

P.P.S. I remember what I wanted to say!

1. DARK BREAK. I'm having a sort of hard time getting into his character, so he might be kind of OOC and considering how dark this chapter was, I really couldn't help it.

2. OOC characters. Some characters may end up OOC because that's just how they ended up.

3. I totally failed here: DISCLAIMER: Pandora Hearts is not mine...NO ITS MMMMMMMMMMY favorite manga :D

4. I wish Pandora Hearts wasn't monthly...or Ao No Exorcist (2PM SQUEEE)


	9. Omake

**Alice…Without Alice: The Story of Chunhyang**

* * *

With that, death's counterfeit took over and she softly fell asleep with Xerxes on her mind…

"WAIT!" Alice called out, "First of all, that was a horrible line thievery from Shakespeare, and secondly, WHY DO I HAVE XERXES ON MY MIND THAT'S JUST SO WRONG!"

"CUT!" The director called, "ALICE, THIS IS THE TWENTY THIRD TIME YOU'VE MADE STUPID CUTS!"

The cameraman sighed, "Look, if you're not serious about this, why don't you just quit?"

"FINE! THEN I WILL!" Alice screamed as she ran out of the studio.

"…Why did you suggest _that_ to her?" The director yelled at his cameraman.

"She'll end up crawling back…first when they find that _Alice in NightmaRe _is cancelled because she was too much of a diva, she'll get hate mail…her agent will throw her out in the streets…and she'll be back soon enough…" the cameraman explained evilly.

"What does this man plot in his spare time?" The rest of the crew thought in fear as the cameraman began to chuckle darkly.

"…There's a problem in your logic there…if _Alice in NightmaRe _is cancelled, there will be no point in her return," the costume designer pointed out.

"Oh no, we just _say_ that the show is cancelled due to Alice's diva-ness, but in the meantime, we film something else…a parody with the characters we have so far."

The director rubbed his chin in deep thought, "I've always wanted to try parody…"

"Great then, because I've got a script right here," he dug out a packet from his back pocket.

"…Who are you?" They all stared in horror.

He grinned, his dark, short messy hair and baseball cap hiding his eyes, "No one special."

As everyone began to read over his script, the cameraman went to the back and pulled off his hat while pushing back his bangs.

"Thank you for the love!" He…no, it was a she! SHE, the author, called out to the readers, "In celebration of twenty fucking reviews, here's our omake, basically stolen and formed to a Pandora Hearts verison from my favorite show I watched in Korea called _Hello Baby_…"

"THE STORY OF CHUNHYANG?" The cast and crew screamed.

* * *

**The Story of Chunhyang**

Cast of Characters:

Narrator (will also be the director) – the know-it-all

Chunhyang – the heroine who awaits her love

Mongryong – the hero who is in love with Chunhyang

Servant – servant of Mongryong

Magistrate Byun – the asshole trying to seduce Chunhyang with his money

* * *

"Wait!" Oz exclaimed, "If this were a parody, wouldn't this be funnier if it wasn't the director directing it, but one of the characters?"

A few of the cast nodded in agreement while the director asked, "If you guys directed it, would I still be paid? …But if you directed it, there'd probably be too many adlibs!"

Break whipped out a check with a thousand bucks and handed it to him, "Pay for the day."

"I'm out," the director snatched the check and left the studio.

"Since _Chunhyang _is a Korean folktale, you're going to need hamboks (traditional Korean clothing) right?" The costume designers squealed in delight upon having to take a more Eastern approach than the usual Western.

"Sure, knock yourselves out."

Oz raised his hand as he took off the bunny ears he had to wear for the show, "I nominate Liam to be Mongryong since he was the first to die!"

Liam stuttered, "No way!"

Break clapped his hands in agreement, "I nominate Oz to be Chunhyang, because the only female characters we had so far was Alice and Lotti and I sure as hell don't agree to a slutty Chunhyang!"

"What?" Lotti and Oz screamed.

"Then I nominate Break to be Magistrate Byun!" the blonde haired boy cried aloud.

He shrugged, "At least I have an excuse to be an ass."

"You don't need an excuse for something like that – you naturally are," Vincent whispered in the back before Break yanked him by the fake mouse ears and started to pull his hair.

At that point, Jack came into the studio, "Hello there~! I came in, hoping I'd get some sort of screentime today!" He was dragging Gilbert by the arm as he entered wearing casual jeans and a t-shirt.

"Perfect timing!" A costume designer called, "You two can be 'Narrator' and 'Servant'!"

"I call narrator!" Jack smiled, pleased to have an actual part in the show before his appearance.

Poor Gilbert whimpered, "…What's going on?"

* * *

Narrator (also director) – Jack

Chunghyang – Oz

Mongryong – Liam

Servant – Gilbert

Magistrate Byun – Break

* * *

**Scene One: Mongryong falls for Chunhyang**

"In the province of Jeollado Namwon lived a girl named Chunhyang!" Jack called enthusiastically, wearing a hambok and gracefully hammering on a Korean drum.

"I'm charming no matter what I do…" Oz sang in a depressed voice as he played hacky-sack, "I thought we'd be rich enough for this parody but the crew is so cheap, forcing me to play hacky-sack~"

"Due to the cheap production cost, Chunhyang is a bit depressed!" The narrator explained. When no one reacted, he ordered, "Hey, Miss Chunhyang, please do something!"

Oz slammed the hacky sack into Jack's face, "You just wait till the time skip comes…since you look so much like me, you can play Chunhyang next!"

Behind the scenes, the cameraman and costume designer sighed, "Why didn't we cast Jack as Chunhyang? He'd be ok with it and his braided hair is like the Korean traditional hairstyle…"

Jack rubbed his cheek and whimpered, "Lee Mongryong fell for Chunhyang after watching her play hacky sack."

Liam said monotonously, "Ah. I fell for her."

"Good for you, Sir," the servant replied in the same tone.

"Who is that woman?"

"She is Chunhyang, Sir."

"…I want to spend the night with her," Mongryong told him.

Gilbert jumped in shock, "Without even marrying her?"

"…Tell her I want to spend the night with her," repeated the stubborn noble.

Gilbert as the servant sighed and chased after Oz who saw him and began to run away, "Hey! Miss!"

He caught Oz by the arm and he glared at Gil, "Yes?"

Gilbert, flustered and scared of Oz glaring at him stuttered, "Uh…um…you know, there's a nice table over there."

Oz, immediately brightened by this outburst, laughed in false anger, "I'm not an easy woman!"

"Maybe this won't be so bad after all," he thought as he chuckled, watching Gilbert return to Liam.

"…She's not an easy woman," he reported, earning a snort from everyone in the set.

"Tell her to come to my house," Mongryong ordered as he shuffled into a small box that played as his 'house' while thinking, "Damn budget cuts…"

"I told you I don't want to go!" Chunhyang protested when the servant tried again.

Jack, upon seeing this troubling reality, beat the drum again and called out, "I have forgotten to announce Chunhyang's personality!"

"My personality?" Chunhyang asked aloud.

"Yes! Chunhyang…is an exhibitionist."

"I told you having a slutty Chunhyang was a good idea!" Lotti complained.

Oz tried to ignore the laughs on the set as his right eye twitched in annoyance, "I'll kill you for this, Jack."

He sighed as he began to strip his top off before Gilbert blushed, "Forget it, just come with me!"

"Ah~!" Oz pretended as though he were a damsel in distress as Gilbert dragged him to the box they called 'a house'.

"Oh my, is this the love hotel?" Oz asked, smiling cutely that sent shivers up Gil's spine.

"This is a PG-rated parody, Chunhyang," Jack reminded.

"Sit," Gilbert pushed Oz to the floor and ran off to the side before Liam held his fluffy Korean fan in one hand in an extravagant manner.

"Mongryong had come to greet Chunhyang!" Jack announced as the narrator.

"Hello…"

"…before he left!"

"What?" Liam turned to the narrator, "Why do I leave my own house?"

"It's actually Chunhyang's house! What kind of noble would live in a box?" Jack rolled his eyes as Liam pouted and left the box.

"The servant convinced his lord to meet Chunhyang in her home!" He explained as Gilbert tried to drag diva-Liam to Oz.

"Come on, Sir –"

"No," Liam pouted like a kid without candy.

"But –" Gilbert attempted to drag him again.

"No!"

"You know Oz from _Alice in NightmaRe_ and _Pandora Hearts_? Yeah, Chunhyang looks just like him!" Gilbert tried as he managed to use brute strength and hurled him to Oz.

"Mongryong and Chunhyang fell in love at first sight and danced the night away!" Jack giggled as he beat the drum.

"What is this, _Cinderella_?" Liam cried while Oz took Liam's two hands and began to dance in a stupid manner.

"La la la la la," Oz sang while Jack hummed 'Parallel Hearts' then 'Lacie'.

"Do something interesting!" Break called from the back.

"And Chunhyang, so drunk with love, kissed Mongryong!" Jack snorted aloud.

Oz reminded himself that he'd kill Jack and Break later as he pulled Liam down and gave him a French kiss. The two knocked each other over from the force and fell to the ground as the girls on the set squealed and obtained nosebleeds. Gilbert was off to the side, taking a video of the kiss with his iPhone.

"That was my first kiss…" Liam sobbed uncontrollably after pulling apart, out of breath.

"At least my first was with Alice…" Oz gasped.

"Man up, Mongryong," Jack laughed as he slapped him on the back.

"Director, don't I have any scenes?" Gilbert asked, bored of having nothing to do.

"I'll make some up for you."

* * *

**Scene Two: Mongryong says goodbye**

"Lee Monryong has to follow his father to Hanyang (what is now the city of Seoul) but promises to return to Chunhyang in the future."

"My Lady, I am afraid I must leave," Liam twitched, unable to let go of the kiss.

"The servant carries Mongryong's luggage and urges him."

Gilbert took the fluffy fan from Liam's hands and smacked his head with it, "Let's roll."

"Then Chunhyang begins to take off her clothes – wait a second…"

Oz didn't hear his "wait a second" and proceeded to untie his top. Jack shrugged and continued, "She then slapped her lover's face with the ribbons."

Oz was glad to do so.

"Mongryong gives Chunhyang the fan and tells her that they will meet again someday."

"Oh~" Oz pretend to weep behind the open fan, "You cannot leave!"

"She was so upset with the parting…that she gets possessed by a ghost!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~!" Oz squealed as he hopped around, fanning the fan above his head and spazzing all over the place.

"N.G.! Stop having so many adlibs!" Liam cried.

"I'm the director," he cleared his throat, "Mongryong hugs Chunhyang and says 'Have faith in me'. She replies, 'I will never forget you.'"

"Please have faith in me…" Mongryong gave Oz a hug.

"I will never forget you," Gilbert blurted out.

"Hey, that was my line!" Chunhyang huffed.

"I need some lines too here!"

"Fine!" Jack sighed, "They part sadly…and the servant books her again."

"The love hotel?" Oz asked after Gilbert whispered something in his ear.

"SERVANT!" Liam called.

"Wait for me at that room!" Gilbert yelled as he ran to Liam.

"Oh, what shall she do, poor Chunhyang?" Jack felt a presence behind him and turned to find Oz looking over him.

"Is this the love hotel?" He asked.

* * *

**Scene Three: Chunhyang waits and waits**

The poor heroine sat at her box-house, pulling the petals from a flower, "He will come, he will not come, he will come, he will not come, he will come, he will not come – hey!" Oz had pulled all the petals off and there were no longer any.

"As Chunhyang awaited her lover…" Jack called out, "…She got tired of waiting and was possessed by a ghost."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~!" Oz began to spazz and wave the fan around again.

"She became possessed and tried to do fortune telling to tell when Mongryong would return!"

Oz counted his fingers, "He will…he'll return in…one…five…three…hours? Three hours?"

"That's counting, not fortune telling!"

**Scene Four: Magistrate Byun forces Chunhyang to spend the night with him**

"At this time, Byun Hakdo is appointed as the magistrate of Namwon, Chunhyang's town!"

"A-Yo!" Break called from a bigger box known as 'Byun's house' and held up a hand like a rapper, "Yo, I am Byun, now the story has begun, I can't wait to meet this chick –"

"Break's rapping is kinda making me sick…" Oz groaned.

"Yo, you rappin'?" Break began to breakdance on the floor, earning howling laughter from the crew and cast.

Jack tried to hold in his laughter as he announced, "Byun heard that Chunhyang was very pretty!"

"A-Yo, where's ma Chunhyang? Bring me ma gurl!"

"He has to seduce Chunhyang to his house…but since there's no one else, I guess I'll just have to go," Jack got up and skipped over to Oz. He dragged him over, "And Chunhyang enters moonwalking!"

Oz entered the box, hip-hop dancing to Ke$ha's "Blow" rather than moonwalking, but it was close enough.

"They both sit and Byun falls in love with Chunhyang's beauty!"

Break sat in a sexy pose and meowed, "Raor~"

Oz backed away involuntarily.

"Chunhyang doesn't like this person," Jack grinned.

"Damn straight."

"Byun asks Chunhyang to spend the night with him!"

"You, me, bed, tonight," Break sang which scared the hell out of Oz.

"I don't like you. You aren't my style," Oz choked, trying to recover from the eye-rape.

"Byun gets mad and Chunhyang gets scared as she thinks of Mongryong."

"You bitch!"

"He gets so mad that he kisses her!"

"RAPE!" Oz screamed as Break jumped and Frenched him.

Sir Mongryong, _I told you to come back now get your ass over here!_" Oz growled in an attempt to be sweet at the same time.

"And upon hearing her sweet voice…Mongryong literally comes in flying!"

"What?"

* * *

**Scene Five: Mongryong returns as the Royal Inspector**

"The Royal Inspector is coming!" Gil called as the audience as Liam held up a cookie.

"That's your metal?"

"We needed to improvise."

Liam came in running, tripped, fell on his face, then he stroke a pose.

"Wow, that wasn't half bad," Oz nodded.

"Thank you."

"Who a' ya?" Break rapped.

"You're the guy who prank called me last week, weren't you?" Liam crossed his arms.

"Stop with the adlibs," Jack ordered, "And Mongryong dances to this Korean song called 'Sorry Sorry' to apologize to Chunhyang. The audience should look up the dance for the sake of picturing Liam doing it."

"Seriously?" Liam cried as he danced.

After another round of laughter, Jack coughed, "And the couple decided to forgive Byun Hakdo."

"Isn't Byun Hakdo a gagman?"

"No, that's Kim Hakdo."

END.

* * *

Upon the broadcasting of the parody, TV viewers dropped and the production company ended up having to get Alice to return by begging on their knees. As for Jack, well…he's recovering for the actual show.

* * *

And that concludes the omake for Alice in NightmaRe! (I didn't want to resort to fluffy yaoi, but there's just not enough diva girls in Pandora Hearts to be unashamed enough to take the roles...)

I've wanted to do an omake for a while, and when I hit twenty reviews, I needed to party! THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!

TinselPeas: I ASSURE YOU BREAK WAS WEARING PANTS.

MakenshiCrona: You're one of my top reviewers~! Thanks for the encouragement! So far I've researched Paradichlorobenzen and punishments in Hell :D Actually, a few of the things I've researched will be very relevant to the story. And don't worry about Liam...he's -...I'll stop there to piss you off ;D

oBseSSiON Is ODd: When I wrote "I love Ozzie" I had this werid eye-twitch because I know some Hispanic guy named Oz (short of Oswaldo) and it was kinda awkward for me...Welcome back and I think you'll be very suprised with how Jack's character will turn out to be ;)

Love you all and I'll try to update faster~!

-From someone with red eyes because of spending too much time in chlorine and not getting enough sleep due to the neighbors at a hotel she was at for her brother's birthday...they just HAD to give us a room next to the party room...we ended up moving in the middle of the night to a different room...


	10. Retrace 9

**Alice in NightmaRe**

* * *

"Yoo-Hoo~! Time to get up!" A cheerful voice greeted her as a warm hand shook her shoulder.

"What time is it?" Alice mumbled as she rolled over.

"It's six."

" 'M tellin' ya, that's just you…" She groaned as she fell back asleep.

"…Miss Alice?" He poked and prodded her sides with a stick. She giggled and shuffled around until…

"Miss Alice, please wake up or else I will have to jab you with my cane," he threatened in a preppy voice.

"Ain't that thing a sword…?"

"Exactly."

"…"

Alice shot up from the floor, "Then hell, I'm awake."

"Good morning~!" He patted her head.

She rubbed her eyes to find Break in perfect condition, only error being that he wore only his dress-shirt now that his coat had been ruined.

"Where ya stains…?" She slurred, trying to force herself to wake up, even though she had said she was awake

"Stains?" He lifted a brow.

"Stomach stains…face stains…" Alice yawned, talking about the blood that was once on his abdomen and face the night before.

"I ate them," he replied, shaking her shoulders, trying to wake her up.

"Tats gud phor you…"

"…Miss Alice, I didn't want to do this but…" Break lifted his cane and yelled as he whacked her in the stomach, "DEMON BEGONE!"

"HOLY FUCK!" She gasped as she bent over in a 90 degree angle, whimpering in pain, "Ya ain't fucking exorcising a demon, here!"

"It is called the demon of sleep," he laughed, "Now that you are awake, why don't we get out of this place before it becomes our graveyard?"

Alice, finally fully awake and alert, shivered at her surroundings and nodded in agreement, "Where are we going?"

Break stomped over the pile of ashes and burnt sticks where their fire from the night before once was there and replied, "We're taking a trip to my house. I don't fancy walking around with strips of cloth what you call bandages around me the whole journey long."

She pouted as she snatched her coat off the ground and put it on, "Whatever."

Alice followed Break out of the forest about ten feet away from him while watching him intensely, unsure whether to trust him or not. Break, on the other hand, could feel her stare boring into his back and clicked his tongue, "Tch, you could you stop trying to burn a hole through my head?" He snapped, irritably, "If you're still worried about the fact that I'm a Chain, you don't have to worry about a premature death. If I wanted to kill you, I could have done so in the forest."

Realizing this, Alice relaxed a bit and walked a bit closer, enough to make small talk about everyday things, comforting Break, knowing that there was someone in the world who cared enough to chat with him.

* * *

"_It's too bad Mister Vincent went to sleep so early in the day," Alice said aloud, "One could do many things while he is asleep and he would never know. Why, he could be robbed at this very moment! His lazy carelessness could even lead to his own death!"_

"_He may appear this way, but in reality, he is actually very hardworking. It's a pity you don't get to meet him when he's doing his best," Liam laughed as he took a sip of tea._

_Xerxes raised his eyebrows, "THAT thing can work?"_

"_Oh yes, brat, he's very diligent. He makes toys for the children of Wonderland, both human and not," The man in glasses smiled at Alice, "Maybe he'll make you something too one day."_

"_I hope he makes me a cat," Alice pondered, "My Diane disappeared and she hasn't returned since."_

"_I'm sure she'll come back."_

"_Even though nothing can replace her…when do you think he'll make me a Diane?" She asked hopefully._

_Liam laughed again, "Soon enough. He's not known as Diligence for nothing."_

* * *

"How does one go about this place?" Alice questioned aloud, "I can't tell the difference between morning and night here; the sky's always black, red, or a blackish red. In fact, we could be walking around at night and be sleeping during the day. I feel like a nocturnal animal."

"It's an animal's instincts that help you decipher, nya~"

"Get back!" Break pushed Alice away from the new voice that emerged from the trees to hurl itself at them.

Alice, being the small figure she was, was able to quickly evade the attack with the instincts she had newly gathered from the depths of herself to the left and Break snapped himself to the right.

The smoke slowly cleared, enough for Alice to see the tremendous mess of the ground. The tinkle of a bell was heard.

"Nyao~" The boy meowed with a bored expression plastered on his face.

"What the fuck do you want?" Break growled, holding his cane in two hands, preparing to unsheathe his sword.

When the dust finally cleared away, she turned to the attacker. He was about as old as Break, fashioned in black clad, ribbons of black and pink, and abnormally large claws. Two large bells each adorned the ends of his giant ribbons and one small one was strung around his neck. The two cat ears on his messy, short black hair twitch as his long, silky, black tail curled upward and Alice unconsciously knew that he was happy. But despite all his odd traits, only one thing shocked her: he had bloody red eyes, incredibly similar to that of Break. And while Break covered his left eye, the boy in front of her covered his right.

"You damned –"

Before Break could finish, the boy jumped in the air and his ribbons surrounded him before he disappeared through thin air. Alice frantically looked around before she felt the presence of a person right behind her.

The boy sniffed her as he leaned his chin on her shoulder, "Who's your friend, Break?"

"Hey!" She turned around to shove him off as he jumped back onto a tree branch and licked one of his giant paws.

"She smells like a Contractor…" he cocked his head, "But she smells like a Chain too…" He turned to Break, "I didn't think you'd resort to sleeping with Contractors to get them to help you."

"Son of a –"

Break didn't even bother finishing his sentence. He unsheathed his sword and took a swing at the stranger. He flipped backwards and slid back.

"Damned cat!" Break cursed as he attempted to attack again.

The attacker stepped back and disappeared again before appearing behind Break and clawing his back.

"Your senses have dulled, nya…" the boy mumbled, "Is your eyesight gone yet?"

Break stepped back, clawing at his bleeding back and biting his lip.

The boy gave a dark chuckle before whipping his head towards his left. He raised his claws and blocked Alice who hurled at him with the Keyblade. She was strong enough to push him back and sparks flew as the metal from the blade and his claws stroke together.

"Who are you and why are you messing with Break?" She asked after jumping away from him.

He cocked his head, "Don't you remember, stupid girl? I was your favorite pet."

"I never had a pet," Alice retorted.

He lifted a brow before grinning, "Ah, I see. Maybe you really are _Alice_. You chose a good pawn, this time!" He snapped his head at Break, "But if she really is the Alice, then your rebellion would be worthless. She'd be dead before even getting near the castle."

"I'm nobody's pawn!" She snapped.

The boy in black turned back to her, "Nobody was killed a while ago. I believe Nobody died at the hands of the Red Queen."

Alice frowned in confusion, "But I thought she killed lots of people…nearly everybody!"

He shook his head, "No, Everybody should be alive, I think he's living alone at Somewhere."

"…What?" Alice shook her head in confusion, "Whatever, I don't care who you are anymore, but what do you want?"

"Nothing much, just checking up on my old friend," he grinned darkly at Break, "And a wonderful donator he is."

"It's not donating if it was taken from you against your will!" Break growled ferociously.

"You never disagreed."

"What, were my screams not enough for you?"

"Now that you mention them, I want to hear them again…" he snickered as Break continued his glare.

"Get the fuck out!" Alice screamed at him.

He pouted, "We'll meet again anyway…but you better hope we won't – the next time I see you may be your last." He again snapped himself in the air and disappeared without a trace.

There was an awkward moment of silence broken by Break's grunt as he leaned against a tree. Alice rushed to his aid, "Are you alright?"

"I've been worse," he sighed, but she could still see the malice in his eyes as she helped him stand properly, "I feel like a weak newbie…"

She frowned, "Hey, we all have our days."

Break gave a small smile, "I'm hoping that this will be my only day."

Alice smiled too before asking, "Who was he?"

His smile faded as his voice dripped with hatred, "You might know him as Cheshire Cat."

* * *

"_What is 'diligince'?" Alice asked._

"_Diligence is to be hard working," Xerxes explained as he took a sip of his own tea, "It is also one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues, which is the seven good deeds that'll get you into Paradise after death."_

_Liam looked at him with surprised eyes, "So you go to church?"_

"_Or rather, I'm interested in what opposes the Seven Deadly Sins," he smirked, trying to hide his pride._

_Alice cocked her head, only being able to understand half of what they just said._

"_I'm actually surprised you caught on," Liam chuckled, "Half the kids who come here don't exactly put two and two together. There are seven circles on the Seven Seal Card for a reason."_

"_I'm assuming they represent the Seven Heavenly Virtues?"_

_Liam laughed, "Well, Vincent doesn't seem like a Sin, does he?"_

_Xerxes played with the tea in his cup, "He could be Sloth for always sleeping…"_

* * *

A girl in a fancy, but lonely room with shelves full of porcelain dolls held a doll with a trembling hand. Its entire structure had been broken for sure, considering its cracks spreading throughout its body and face.

"It was broken…" the girl mumbled, "But it's been put back…"

She began to giggle, "But if it was broken once, it'll be easy to break again…"

She put back the doll on the shelf. The doll that looked oddly familiar. The doll that looked

like Alice.

* * *

And that concludes the ninth chapter of Alice in NightmaRe.

Oh my, an update. Happy face~

Despite its filler-like content, it's actually chock-full with information. I pretty much gave away most of what the plot will be based upon. In fact, I think I gave a bit too much away...

Oh, and I've been wondering about this for a while...what do you guys picture me as? A twenty year old with a good job for a seven year old genius who is a bit too creepishly good at vocabulary? I want to see how close you'll get xD

YOU KNOW HOW I BASE MY CHAPTERS OFF OF? The number of reviews must be as twice (or more) as much as the number of chapters. Since I don't include the omake, it's only chapter nine with 21 reviews, so after the next chapter I will await one more review for the eleventh...I'm a selfish OCD (ITS ACTUALLY CDO IN ABC ORDER) person...

I was a bit sad that not many people but the usual readers are reading and reviewing for the story, but many have story-alerted so I try to be grateful about that...Then I get jealous when I see stories with like four chapters and seventy-something reviews D:

I might have to go back to some chapters and revise it a bit here and there for the story to work because I can't seem to bear writing it all and making it perfect without a single update. So if something seems off, you can ask me or go back a few chapters and sorry for the trouble.

Thanks to the usual oBseSSiON Is ODd for reviewing and enjoying the story (and its random omake xDD I'll be sure to make another for every tenth review [as in twenty, thirty, fourty, etc]). Oh, and it was no problem beta-ing your story, it was actually really fun! I should beta some more :3 And thanks for putting me on Author Faves, I think it's the first time it's ever happened! (jumps and glomps you)

Please review because reviews are like gas in the 21st century - rare, expensive, but they really keep (your car, actually) you going!

I SHOWA YOU WITH DA KISSES

-From someone who just realized it was a Sunday which means she needs to do homework! GASP!


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